I thought this cruise was great. Everything about was great. The staff was very friendly. I love my stateroom attendant, he made us animals out of towels. It was beautiful. This was my first cruise. We made stops in Nassau Bahamas, Coco Cay Bahamas and Key West, FL. The food was great. You can eat all day long. Breakfast and lunch were in the Windjammer. They had magnificent views of the ocean. Dinner was served in the the two dining rooms. Makido and Maytime. I was in the Makido and my waiter's( waiter and assistant) were very nice and they always recommend something good on they menu. The menu changed every night. You have the option of eating in there or your room, the dinner menu can be served in you room. Every night at dinner they put on a little show. Singing etc. I chose a larger stateroom, Superior oceanview. It was very spacious. The bathroom is rather small, but I didn't expect one as big as the one I have at home. Unfortunately I was not able to see other guest rooms, so I can't recommend one room over another. However I will say this, YOU DO NOT KNOW YOU ARE MOVING UNLESS YOU ARE LOOKING OUT THE WINDOW. We had good weather and calm waters. If you are concerned that you will get sea sick don't get a ocean view room. The closet space was moderate. Not a lot for luggage but enough for hanging close. The smell of sewer is not a strong constant, more like a whiff. There are lots of activities on the boat for adults and kids. Again I thought it was great! I read so many reviews about this boat that I went on there with bad expectations and it really surprised me. I think people have there expectations too high. For example the sewer smell, people should realize that this is a boat, they don't the plumbing that we do at home, so you are bound to smell something. It's not overwhelming, it won't take your breath away, nor make you light headed. If anyone has any questions about this cruise please feel free to e-mail me. I am delighted to answer your questions. Jenylyte@aol.com. Read Less

Fantasy 8/14 - 8/18 - Review Hi everyone! I promised to write a review of our 4 day cruise on the Fantasy so here goes. Please keep in mind when reading a review, that most of it is of personal opinion. Some may or may not agree with my take on things. We flew in from long Island and arrived in Orlando at 12:15pm - got our luggage rather quickly and headed straight for the Budget counter to get our rental. We rented a car to drive down to the Port ($33.05 total) and stayed at the Radisson Hotel. The Budget at the airport took only minutes and we were on our way. It took us about 35 minutes to get to the hotel. We took 528 all the way down to the port. So simple! I had pre-registered online with the Raddison and we arrived there around 1:30. I wasn't sure if our room would be ready this early, but it was. She just handed me the envelope with the keys and we were in our room in minutes. We got a king-suite with a whirlpool bath and it was very nice. Plenty of room for the two of us. The pool was beautiful with the waterfalls. They were even having a wedding and the bride and groom came out to have pictures taken by the waterfalls. Very nice. We drove to Cocoa Beach and explored a little and did some souvenier shopping for our kids. Then back to the hotel for a relaxing afternoon and evening. They were having a seafood buffet that night so we opted to stay and eat at the buffet. ($26.00pp) very good food. We were stuffed and tired from our trip so off to the whirlpool bath and bed. We left the Raddison at 9:30 and dropped the car at Budget. It was just up the road from the Radisson. Took their shuttle to the port and were there by 10:00. We passed through security and went through the boarding process and were done by 10:30. We then went to the waiting area and waited in chairs for an hour. We were on the ship at 11:31 am!! It was great! We immediatley went to our cabin to drop off our carry-ons and then up to the Lido deck for a drink and lunch. Everything went so smooth. After eating, we checked out the ship. Did the Muster Drill in the Universe lounge and then set sail in the middle of a wicked thunderstorm. We didn't meet our cabin stewards for two days. I don't know why, but we kept missing him. He took great care of us and when we finally did meet up with them, we gave them a tip to show our appreciation. They were really great! We had the early seating (5:45) and everything was really nice. DH tipped the wait staff $20.00 from us for our stay. We did not tip on the last night. Personnally, we probably wouldn't do a dinner that early next time. There are pros and cons to it so I'm on the fence about it. The good thing was that when it was over, (7:00) you had the whole evening ahead of you. After dinner gambled with blackjack and the slots. No one won anything on the slots. You lost your $20.00 real fast! Saw the late night comedian and the show. Very good. Monday - Freeport, Bahamas - We took the Carnival Snorkel tour which we signed up for on the ship at the shore tours the night we arrrived. $45.00 per person for 2.5 hours. They had two times 9:15 or 12:15. We opted for the 9:15 tour. We were outside of the ship early (8:50) so the driver took us to the boats which are right by all the shopping. We were told to be by the boat in 1/2 an hour so we did some shopping and got it over with. Then off to snorkel. The water and the fish were great. We had about 50 people on our boat. They sold soda, chips and beer and had a free punch if you wanted it. It was a gorgeous morning. We like this tour a lot. On the way back to the ship, it started to rain. By the time we got to the ship it was pouring. We were back on the ship by 1:00. Showered and went up for some lunch. We went back to the cabin around 3:00 and relaxed. By dinner time, we weren't that hungry but we went anyway. This is why sometimes the early dinner seating isn't always great. Our friends didn't do the snorkel tour with us so we wanted to see them at dinner. After dinner we caught the show and the comedian and walked around the decks for a while. Turned in around 11:00. Tuesday - Nassau Bahamas - We left the ship at 9:00 and did some shopping. Got a couple of Coach bags and some other things , brought them back onto the ship and put them away and then we were on our way to Atlantis! I booked a room at the Comfort Suites for $164.00 and with that we could take our registration cards over to Atlantis and get the wristbands so that we could use all of the resort's amenities. We checked out our room around 11:00 and decided to keep the room and not check out right away. We walked over to the Atlantis, not a long walk at all. You enter from the Beach Tower hotel. Show your registration cards at the door to the pool and then go to any towel hut to get your wristband and towels. You don't need to bring towels from the ship. It was FANTASTIC!! Atlantis is definitely a must see if your going to Nassau. Absolutely beautiful! We used the pools, the beach, saw the aquariums, the dig, the lazy river and even the slides. Food is expensive there and it is very hard to find open chairs. There are thousand of people all over. The beach water is beautiful. The pools weren't too refreshing though. Water was like a bath, but hey, its August. Only thing I would do next time is try to get there earlier. We couldn't find a lounge chair for quite a while. We sat on our towels and walked around the whole place. A lot of walking. Make sure you take a map with you. We just had hamburgers and fries for lunch a Coke and a beer. $27.00. It was very hot and I got a little overheated so we went inside after drinking lots of ice water. I felt better inside after we did the dig. We decided to go back to Comfort Suites around 3:30. DH took a short nap and I relaxed and showered. (Very glad we kept the room.) Around 5:00 we went back over to the Atlantis. Wasn't as crowded, people must have had enough of the sun and were getting ready for dinner. We weren't too hungry so without all the people, we really got to walk around and see things we missed earlier. We went by the Marina and saw the yachts. Dreamed a little and then ate at I believe it was Murrays deli. 2 nice sandwiches, fries a Sprite and a beer and $43.00. Like I said, expensive. OH, I forgot, one of my flip-flops broke so we had to find a gift store to by another pair. I ended up paying $15.00 for a $3.00 pair of flips! I checked out the prices of bathing suits and wraps and WOW! Too rich for me! Anyway, we strolled around with the lights on outside and then left Atlantis around 8:30, went back to check out of Comfort Suites, took a taxi back to the ship and were back on board by 9:30. We had a wonderful day at Atlantis and felt as if we went on two vacations, the cruise and this. We'll never forget Atlantis! I had an earache so I went to bed when we got back. DH met up with our friends. They didn't come with us to Atlantis so he wanted to hang out up on the Lido deck. Sea Day - Had breakfast around 9:00 got a couple of lounge chairs by the pool and a table and chairs under the shade. It was very hot, you had to go in the water from time to time, but it was refreshing. We watched the hairy chest contest and the ice carving and just hung out til 3:00. Went to take a nap and relax before dinner. Dinner was nice. We didn't feel that our wait staff was anything special. Don't get me wrong, they were very nice, friendly, but didn't interact with us too much. Last year, we had a ball with our wait staff. After dinner we went to our cabin to pack up. We were going to take our luggage off so we didn't put it outside. I had some chips from the casino left so we went up there. I played blackjack and won $320.00 and cashed it in. It was so nice to go home with most of the money I brought! We saw the last show and played the last Bingo with $1000.00 prize but none of us won. We went up on the deck and hung around until midnight ate some pizza and called it a night. Debarkation- let me just say that it was chaotic!!! We chose to take our own luggage off ourselves. There were lines everywhere and no one was around to ask where we were supposed to go. So we got on a line. We were packed like sardines from 7:30 - 8:15. People were getting a little testy. Finally, we were moving and going downstairs to leave. Turns out we were on the wrong line. We were on the early flight line. We just continued though. No one asked us if we had an early flight so we just got off the ship, through customs and were out the terminal by 8:30! Except for the total chaos and people everywhere, it went well. We took the Budget shuttle back to pick up our car. People on the shuttle with us were stopped because they were asked if they had an early flight and they pulled them over to the side until the self debarking group was called. Guess we were lucky. We were driving down to Cocoa Beach by 9:15am. Did some shoppping and walked on the beach and started back to the airport. Dropped off the car and went to the gate where we waited for our flight. Absolutely everything went smoothly. Not one glitch. We both had a wonderful vacation! Our only comlaint about our trip on the 4 day cruise and I really don't want to offend anyone, but some of the passengers were not the nicest or the most considerate or even respectful. There was a lot of pushing and me, me, me attitudes throught the whole trip. God forbid they wait on the line like the rest of us. We were in cabin U67 and two or three other families traveling together were next door and across the hall and they would yell at each other all the time. It could be 5:30 am or 1:30 am. Didn't matter, they could care less if someone was sleeping. They were so loud one night that I opened my door to see what was going on and you would think they would then realize that they were too loud, they just looked at me and continued with their hysterical laughing and yelling. Then on the other side of our wall was a penthouse suite, well, they must have decided to bring the party down to their room at 2:00 am! That went on for a couple of hours. It was absolutely ridiculous. I know I could have complained and I probably should have, but I didn't. I wasn't going to let them ruin my vacation. i just let it go. We are not old peolpe here, we are in our early 40s. We like to have a good time just like the next person, but my three children didn't behave as badly when we took them on a cruise last year. At the pool we had a table of 4 chairs and two lounge chairs for 8 of us. Our group was coming and going. Every time we left our table to go in the water, the people next to us would take one of our chairs. I told them politely that we needed it and she just ignored me. I went I got another chair from another table. An hour later, my husband left to cool off in the pool, I was in the lounge chair and they took another one! I couldn't believe it. Talk about rude. I wasn't even going to deal with people like this. They are not worth it. By the time we left the pool area, these people had over 8 chairs all around one table. We just felt like some of the passengers were less desirable ones because it was a cheaper cruise. I really doubt that we would choose to do a 4 day cruise again because of this, but hey, if that's all I can get, I'd go and just put up with these kind of people. Well, that's my review. Hope it was informative to you. If you have any questions, feel free to ask. I'm sure I left something out. Thank you everyone for helping me to have a vacation we will never forget! 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This was our 10th cruise, and my 4th one with NCL. I found the Dawn clean and the staff were very attentive to our needs. All of the staff from the Captain, his Senior Staff and down were very friendly and would always address you with a pleasant greeting. I liked the fact that the Captain and his Senior Staff , were highly visible and were happy to talk with passengers and pose for pictures. My wife and I booked a lower oceanview cabin and found that this "oceanview" was actually a small porthole instead of the usual picture window, which was disappointing. The bathroom in our cabin was partitioned into 3 areas and unless you were a very petite person, you were going to have problems fitting into the toilet section. The shower area, however was beautifully large. The cabin itself was attractive and had abundant storage. Our cabin stewards were excellent, the cabins were well maintained and we were greeted each night with a wonderful towel animal and a mint on our pillow. We ate in three of the specialty restaurants and found the food and service in La Trattoria (Italian) and Salsa (TexMex)were top of the line. We also tried the Sushi Bar where they had all you can eat Sushi for $10.00. The service was great, but the selection was poor in the all you can eat, so several of us opted to go Ala Carte. This was a little more money, but a better choice for anyone who is a true sushi/sashimi lover. The main restaurants (Venetian, Impressions and Aqua) were beautiful, but you should note the following: the portions were miniscule and I had to order two or three main dishes to make a decent meal. Over all, the fare in the regular restaurants was nothing to write home about. In fact, the night they served lobster, it was a disaster. It was overcooked, rubbery and covered in a tastless sauce, it was totally inedible. The buffets were a little better and the on-deck BBQ was ok if you like burgers and hot dogs. The food at the Bimini Bar had no wait and the burgers, fries, and hot dogs were fresh off the grill and delicious. The Blue Lagoon was also a good alternative for a meal, particularly if you were returning from an excursion and wanted a snack, lunch or even dinner at an odd hour since it is open 24 hours. Unfortunately, the one and only ice cream bar located by the pool was only open from 11:00 am to 6:00 pm. The major production shows in the Stardust Theatre were good. The bands and pianists in the lounges were top the the line. There are many nice lounge areas around the ship and the drinks were reasonable. The on-deck parties are pretty run of the mill. The ship seems to cater to families with pre-teenage children. There was very little for adults to do late at night, since most of the bars close by midnight, however the disco stays open a little later and the casino stays open all night. Unfortunately there are no "adult only" areas around the pool deck. Many children (and surprisingly, some adults) totally disregarded the posted rules displayed by the pool & hot tub area, showing a total lack of consideration to their fellow passengers as well as a threat to everyone's safety by diving and jumping over both adults and children in the pool, horsing around in the jacuzzi's, and bringing glass bottles & drinks inside the pool itself. The three shore excursions we took were fun. In Port Canaveral the NASA Up Close Tour at the Kennedy Space Center,is worth the extra expense, especially if you want to see the actual parts of international space station and the space shuttle. We had an excellent tour guide, who was full of information. In Miami, the Airboat ride in the Everglades was very enjoyable, as was the wildlife show. The private island stop was fun if you like the beach (don't bother renting snorkeling equipment, but do rent a raft). It was a little to hot to spend the allotted time on the beach,so many people left early. Lattitudes members get VIP tender tickets, so you don't have to wait on line for an hour. Also, plan to go early. The stop in Nassau was a joke and not worth the stop-over at all. Arrived 8:00 pm when everything was closed and left at 11:00 am the next morning. What we did see was very disappointing. Some passengers were accosted by the locals, who hang out at the ship terminal, it was kind of sleazy. We did take an interesting excursion called Sea & See, part water, part land. The Sea part in a semi-submarine was great, the land part was rushed. Embarkation is efficient, arrive early, so you can get on the ship much earlier than you think. Let them know if you are a Latitudes Member when you arrive at the terminal, you get priority check-in and a special area to wait. Debarkation is extremely easy. You can wait in you cabin, or a lounge area, until your color ticket is called. You walk off the ship with no line and are immediately directed to your luggage. Read Less

This was my second cruise, the first being eight years ago on Carnival. My daughter (15) and I were cruising this time and had an inside stateroom on the third floor. Embarkation: I had read some horror stories about waiting on line for hours and was prepared for the worse. I had pre-registered online and arrived at the ship at noon. The registration process could not have gone smoother, it only took about five minutes to process me and allow me access to the ship. While the rooms were not ready until 1pm, the Windjammer was opened for lunch. We changed into our swim suits and got some lounge chairs by the pool before heading to the room. Room: Our room inside on the third floor and although tiny was more than adequate for this short journey with plenty of space to store all we brought on board. The shower pressure was surprisingly good, the beds comfortable and the room in good shape. The halls did smell of cigarettes, but thankfully the room did not. It would be nice if RCCL would keep smokers on one side of the ship but that might be asking for too much. If you are a first time cruiser, be prepared to hear the PA in the morning announcing the port being opened or some other general announcement repeated a few times in at least two languages. Meals: The main dinner room was nice and the service was quite good. I never sat at a dinner setting with ten pieces of silverware before! The food was hit and miss on this cruise, the fish dishes and cold soups were above average while the meat dishes were just okay. The waiter and head waiter are very anxious for you to enjoy your meal and will encourage you to try multiple entrees until you find what you like. I ordered off the menu one night and got what I wanted to order. Breakfast was at the Windjammer cafe each day for me and I it was to my liking each day with french toast, pancakes or waffles along with the eggs, breakfast meats, pastries/bread/bagels, and other standards. The fruit served was the highlight of the morning meal with the cantaloupe as good as I've had. Food Entertainment: Somewhere in between the food section and the entertainment comes the two midnight buffets. The first is at the pool deck when you leave Nassau and it is amazing to watch how much food people can put away after a big dinner. The second midnight treat is the chocolate buffet - which you can gain weight just talking about. If you want to catch up on a few missed meals, these will more than help. Entertainment: There were shows in the main room each night. The two productions with Royal Caribbean's singing and dancing group were surprisingly entertaining, lots of costume and scenery changes, and singers that were quite good. The impressionist that headlined on Wednesday had seen better days (I was suspicious when his only credit was the Merv Griffin show) but the comedian on the last night more than made up for it. The cruise directory (Warren Allen) kept it all moving and was especially funny running their version of the Newlywed game. Ports of Call: Nassau was the first stop and after doing some required shopping (I was with my 15 year old daughter) in the straw market, we ferried to Atlantis. We walked through this impressive (think Bellagio) hotel and made our way to the public beach next to their property. The beach was amazing, the water crystal clear and not full of seaweed, shells or much marine life - at least not in the swimming area. Parasailing and jetskis were for rent on the beach at a considerable discount from the tour prices on the ship. Second stop was Coco Cay, a private beach island that is very nicely put together. The ship sets anchor a short distance from shore and you have to take a tender to the island. The water along side the tender was so incredibly inviting and with all the positive reviews I read, we were sure it was going a fabulous swim day. Alas, the elements were against us that day because the swimming areas were full of jellyfish and some seaweed. I imagine it was an anomaly and the beach is usually as beautiful as others have raved about. The last port was Key West which is a fun place to walk or scooter around. Other observations: Casino was friendly and not crowded. Staff was very friendly and helpful. Room was always clean and everything worked without issue. Bingo is a big money vacuum for RCCL. $35 for a small package of cards each session. They must take in $7000 a session and give back less than $1000 except for the final session which has a $3000 winner. Play bingo at home. Summary: Had a great time at a reasonable cost. I would recommend this cruise wholeheartedly for those looking for a similar short trip. Read Less

This was my 11th cruise overall and my sixth cruise on RCL. We chose this trip notwithstanding the weather (August in Florida and the Bahamas is so hot and humid that you come to welcome the intermittent afternoon rain squalls), but because my three children (girl-18, girl-15, and boy-13) were already visiting their grandfather in Tampa and wanted to take their first cruise. After visiting Gatorland and the Kennedy Space Center we drove to Miami to meet more relatives and take the cruise. We stayed at the Clay Youth Hostel in South Beach which also offers double hotel rooms with a/c and a mini-fridge that were quite adequate in a fantastic location for $60-80. A steal! We arrived at about 3:00 p.m. There were no lines whatsoever in the reception area. After the lifeboat drill, my children explored the ship. Neither of the younger children was impressed by the kids club program. I nursed a mojito in air conditioned comfort in the Viking Club lounge. Having been born in Havana, I was dubious about the available "flavors." I settled for the original recipe which proved so refreshing (with fresh mint) that I had a second. The lounge was a beautiful location offering the best possible view of the scenery as ship left port. I was joined by my son who also remarked on the view of the parade of feminine pulchritude packing the pool deck. Overall, the food was good. As has been my experience on every other cruise, breakfast never changes. It seems great the first day, okay the second day, and boring by the third day. Service in the main dining room was good, but not as excellent as on Celebrity. The cabin attendant was very attentive and helpful. Having scarcely looked out the window in our outside cabins on my first two cruises, I now only book inside cabins. Both the standard inside and outside cabins are TINY and lack shelf space. Even the captain acknowledged the cramped quarters. Fortunately, however, you do not need much room to pack warm weather clothing for such a short excursion and you don't mind the conditions when you are only in your cabin to sleep. I have traveled with my wife and my second brood (now aged 5, 4, and 2) in a single inside cabin on Celebrity and NCL. We would not have survived these cramped quarters here. Notwithstanding that we were in the bowels of the ship, on deck 2, near the engine room, the cabin itself was perfectly quiet. I noticed no foul stenches onboard. The girls enjoyed the exercise facilities. I skipped the art auction (which I usually love) because it was crowded onto the Centrum stairs. The straw market in Nassau was cramped, crowded, and hot. Rather than book a tour to the Atlantis Resort ($60 each for a beach towel and a lunch), we had reserved a room at the Comfort Suites. We caught the ferry, checked in, paid $212, got our vouchers, and walked over to Atlantis to get our wristbands. The kids and I had a blast using all of the pools, waterslides, aquariums, and other facilities available only to guests for less than the price of the official excursion! Next time, I would take a taxi since we had to slog through a rain squall to get from the water ferry dock to the hotel. Coco Cay was peaceful (apart from the jet ski tour where my son volunteered us to be the first in line, following the guide at top speed). The snorkeling was good at the islet across the bay where a huge aggregation of fish hung out by the wreck of two submerged planes, mediocre elsewhere. Lunch was a pedestrian barbecue. The escargot that night, however, were exquisite. I even persuaded the girls to try some. Key West was as pretty and entertaining as ever. Disembarkation was a breeze since we had cleared immigration at Key West. The individual acts at the shows were very amusing. The production numbers, however, were not especially exciting. They were reminiscent of a tawdry afternoon show in Laughlin, not like a dazzling evening performance in Vegas. Read Less

I was not impressed at all. There were 18 family members. Five of the members had cruised before and all five said this cruise was not as good as the others they have experienced. For this to be my first cruise I was disappointed. I was excited when we first arrived at the port. Check-in was wonderful. Once we walked onto the ship, I thought to myself, this is going to be nice. The centrum was nice. We arrived early(noon), so our room was not ready. We went to the Windjammer for lunch. The food was okay. It was warm, NEVER HOT. After lunch we made our way to our room. As soon as we turned the corner on our floor(3rd floor) we were met with a foul odor(like sewage). That immediately turned me off. When I got to my room I no longer smelt the odor though the odor remained in that little section the entire trip. I did notice stains on my floor and on the dressers. The room size was good for my daughter and I. We had early sitting in the main dining room. Food was good but once again only warm. A friend of mine had warned me not to buy the soda pass because the juice is free and it is really good. However, she was on the Sovereign of the Seas, not the Majesty. The Majesty watered down their juices. The first night, I ordered cranberry juice and it did not taste like cranberry juice. It was drinkable but really weak. Well the next day at the BBQ cookout at Coco Cay, my sister-in-law witnessed the staff pouring pitchers of water into the fruit punch. I thought that was really low. That is like cheating your customers. Saturday night my toilet broke. The plumber came Sunday morning. He stuck his hand in the toilet to pull out some tissue, then he was touching stuff, i.e. door handles, sink nobs. I was too through. To witness that made my daughter and I both about throw up. I went to the pursers to complain and they sent my room attendant to sanitize my room, but still, I could not get that visual out of my mind. I did not use my bathroom the rest of the trip. I used my mother's room down the hall. If there would not have been anymore family on this trip I don't know what I would have done. I also was not aware of the tipping suggestions for the head waiter, waiter, assistant waiter and the room attendant. They suggest $30/guest to cover everyone. That would have been $60 for my daughter and myself. It's not mandatory, but the way they always leave notes in your room, you start to feel as if it is mandatory. Of course to each it's own. Some reviews I read had a ball. For me and my little one, we will never cruise this ship again. Read Less

Introduction: This was our second cruise. Our first was a almost 5 years ago on Norwegian's Sky for our honeymoon. That one was a 7 day cruise to the Caribbean. We'd been looking for a long weekend vacation and for a last minute deal, the Majesty 4 days 3 nights was a deal we couldn't pass up. We booked a Guaranteed Outside room and ended #3512 - towards the front of the ship. Highlights: -The price - Can't beat the price for a long weekend. -The Food - Everywhere, all the time, and GREAT food in the dining rooms -The Service - Top notch. -The views from the Viking Crown bar pulling out of port -Coco Cay - Fantastic private island -Deck 7, I highly recommend taking a stroll after dinner or sitting outside and having a drink one night. Very relaxing. -Embarkation/Debarkation - Both were incredibly smooth. Neither process took more than 15 minutes. Lowlights: There aren't many that I would call low lights. You should be aware (and its part of the great price) it is an older ship so there are some signs that its been well loved over the last 13+ years of service -The room size - smaller than industry standard, just know it going into it and you'll be prepared. -We had some electrical problems, our overhead light, bathroom light and tv kept going out, like a fuse was blown. A couple of phone calls to maintenance fixed it and it wasn't a problem after the first day. The long version.... Embarkation: We had registered on line. And we had also arranged our own transportation, using frequent flyer miles. So we landed in Miami around noon and took a taxi right to the pier. $21 is the flat rate. We went up to the check in area, there was no line, and with in 15 minutes (with the obligatory picture) were on our way to our stateroom. The Room: We were assigned room #3512 which is at the front of the ship, on the left hand side (sorry, pardon the lack of ship terminology). The room was small. Enough room for a bed a desk and a closet. It had a porthole to peek out off. I found the closet space to be ample with shelves on the inside for additional clothes. There were drawers in the desk as well to store clothes. We were able to stash our bags under the bed which helped as well. The bathroom was adequate and pretty standard. Overall I think it does fine for a long weekend, any more than 4 days and I would want a little more room. It would have been nice to have some where other than the bed to sit. Pulling out of Miami: Those who have recommended sitting in the Viking Lounge for departation have offered some great advice. That is by far the best vantage point. (Side note -- half way out the channel, the boat had to turn around and go back and dock for a medical emergency debarkation. So after a slight delay we were on our way, finally). Lots of fun music and dancing by the pool. We are quiter people so we enjoyed the intimacy of the Viking Lounge and watching everyone party. Dinner: On our NCL cruise it was Freestyle Dining. Dine whenever, where-ever. So we were a little nervous about the seating thing. We opted for the late seating (so we could take a nap before hand). We were seated with some very nice people from Florida and New York. The food was excellent. The chilled soups are wonderful. I would highly recommend going with the chef's special or some of the featured entrees. There are alternate entrees each night that stay the same throughout the cruise and they are ok, but not the masterpieces that the features are. I had (and not all in one night, but over the course) Pasta with vodka sauce; Duck; Top sirloin; shrimp cocktail; lobster bisque; dessert and cheese plates with my coffee. It was all wonderful. After dinner, we played some craps in the casino. The craps table wasn't particularly kind that night to me but I got my revenge the next night. Coco Cay Its a very nice island, the beach on the far side is extremely shallow. I imagine if you had children it would be great because you can go out many many feet with out every getting past your calves. There were plenty of lounge chairs and it was a wonderful day. Couple of tips - eat early. We waited too late and there wasn't a lot of food left. We headed back to the ship around 2:00 and enjoyed a pretty quite pool area for the evening. Also before dinner, we enjoyed a drink in the Schooner Bar?? I think it was. We borrowed some cards from the library and had a nice time watching the water, having a few drinks and played some rummy. Pre-dinner we hit the champagne bar for some martinis. They have martini specials from 500-830 each night. Great selection of martinis and they really make a good one! Dinner again - fantastic. I loved that they knew I like to order wine with dinner and the list was waiting. Back to the Casino - again - after checking in on the art auction and some of the shops. Tonight, the craps tables gave me some of the money it took from me the night before. We also took a midnight stroll on deck 7. It was really lovely and you MUST do that at least once. Tonight was the midnight buffet on the pool deck. It was complete chaos but we managed to snag some ice cream and dessert and scampered off to the side of the crowds to enjoy our midnight treat. Nassau: We'd been here before so we only got off the ship for 2 hours. We wandered the streets, went to Senior Frogs for a couple of drinks and then hit the flea market. Its nice because there are only 2 ships in port on that day so the flea market people were more open to haggling. Just keep walking away, they will keep coming down. A woman started at $70 on a bag and as I kept walking away it finally came to $45 after walking away twice and $40 after a little hemming and hawing. We spent the rest of the day on the upper deck - very private, a lot less people - with a buck of corona's. Good deal by the way, 7 Coronas for $30 (includes the tip). We sat up there from 3pm to 630pm. Dinner, of course was fantastic. We opted on our last night to enjoy the deck on 7 outside of the champagne bar. My husband had bought some Cubans so we sat under the moonlight and enjoyed the lightening show from the storms in the distance. Debarkation: At 7:30 am the captain came on, announced we were cleared and the debarkation was starting. We were off the ship by 8:00 am and at the airport at 8:30 and able to switch our later flights to a 9:30 flight in order to be home nice and early this afternoon. Overall I think it was a great long weekend trip. The ship shows some signs of wear and tear but what do you expect, it IS an older ship. Service was wonderful and the ports were fun and just perfect for a long weekend. We are even thinking of coming back in September or October to do it all again. Read Less

We just sailed the Majesty from July 25-29. Positives first:-) Atlantis a must do! Book a room at resort prior to and had full use of facilities, we had a blast. Coco Cay FUN!! Snorkeling no big deal!! Disappointed and LOTS of Jellyfish!!! Waverunner tour GREAT and worth it!! Floating mats fun and exploring island fun and found a lot of shells:-) Key West was fun, We did The Mel Fisher Museum and it was nice. We ate at The Conch Republic and it had GREAT food. As far as the ship... We had 2 connecting cabins, 6034 and 6036. Deck 6 had no hot water first day and it SMELLED like RAW SEWAGE!! the whole cruise. It did not permeate into the cabins though only upon leaving the cabin and entering Deck 6. RCCL representative said they couldn't do anything about it. Cabin size was nice and SERVICE!! was EXCELLENT!!! WINDJAMMER FOOD was AWFUL!! and Windjammer service was awful!!! Mikado Dining Room food EXCELLENT!!! AM NOON and NIGHT!! Service was SUPERB!! We had main seating table 17. Michael, Sheldon and Matko were the BEST!!! I suggest breakfast and dinner in the Dining ROOM!!! Room Service was lightning fast and very good, always had fresh ice, cold sodas and water in room. Wanted for nothing in the cabins. Soap, shampoo and conditioner, body wash, towels, tissues etc were all provided. Kids activities on this ship DISAPPOINTED!! We were with my 11yr old son and 15yr old daughter. 6 arcade games, small room dedicated to teens, not MUCH TO DO!!, 1 basketball hoop and 3 ping pong tables and a ton of kids running around with nothing to do!! The Radiance, Brilliance and Explorer were awesome for our children and tons to do. The shows were SUPERB!!! Even the kids enjoyed them. The Casino was full of cigarette smoke but we had fun as I won a few nights in a row:-) Midnight buffets okay!! Chocolate Buffet GREAT!!! Ice carving show okay. The ship itself is worn and run down in some areas but the Viking Crown was nice and we enjoyed the majority of the cruise. But the highlights for us were ATLANTIS!!!, COCO CAY waverunners. I cannot comment on the food on the island b/c we were having sooo much fun that we never ate the BBQ on Coco Cay! HINT!! Take a water to go when you leave Coco Cay as it is hot and waiting for the tender and on the tender back is HOT!!! Oh one more thing we ate at this restaurant in Nassau across the street from the Hilton called CONCH FRITTERS!! It was EXCELLENT!! Service, food and drinks! Snorkeling in Nassau is awesome as well, Shaun, behind the Hilton, very great service!! I suggest doing Atlantis on your own, people on tour did not look happy and no freedom to roam around and no pool facilities, We booked a room at Atlantis for the day and had full use of ALL FACILITIES!! Pool and waterslide and Aquarium were awesome. Okay as far as sailing the Majesty again NEVER!! RCCL again yes!! We loved our cruises on RADIANCE, BRILLIANCE and EXPLORER!! Any ?'s feel free to email me at nickiduca@aol.com:-) BYE!!! Read Less

-- Embarkation was a breeze. We booked a pre-cruise hotel stay through Royal Caribbean. It included a shuttle from the Radisson to the ship. It was perfect because hotel check-out was noon...the shuttle arrived at the hotel between noon and 12:30 p.m. We were at the port before 1 p.m. We didn't have to worry about our luggage because it was automatically brought in from the shuttle to the ship. Paperwork was a breeze because I filled out the forms on-line a few weeks before. We were on the ship enjoying lunch in the Windjammer Cafe before 2 p.m. Make sure you have your swim suits ready because the pools will be ready and waiting for you. -- The cabin was okay. We've cruised with Carnival before and the RC cabin was noticeably smaller. Another difference was that Carnival supplied us with certain toiletries (ie: toothpaste, lotion, etc.) No toiletries with RC! -- Cruising is always a good value! You pre-pay for your accommodations, food, entertainment...you just need to bring money for your excursions and souvenirs! -- Our babysitter was a blessing! We brought our 18-month old along and were worried about being able to sneak away for our formal dinners and evening shows. Not a problem! As soon as we boarded, we went to the Purser's desk and requested a babysitter for 3 evenings for 5 hours each night. The price was very reasonable. And the sitter was very sweet. Our toddler liked her right away. -- Dining was pretty good. I recommend eating breakfast and lunch in the buffet areas and dinner in the formal area. Make sure to get to the buffets early to avoid the long lines...get there too late and you won't be able to get back in line for seconds! The formal dinner dining was nice except for the fact that the wait staff normally have to perform for the guests with cheesy singing and dancing. I would have preferred that they just waited on us instead of performing for us. And one thing I noticed was that RC doesn't serve lobster dinners...whereas Carnival does.... -- Entertainment....make sure you make it out to the shows! The musical, comedian and magician shows were really entertaining. The Karaoke lounge was pretty sad...it wasn't as good as Carnival's. Carnival's Karaoke lounge had resident lounge singers...they were pretty talented. -- Bingo...you have to join in on the fun at least once. You may win a few hundred dollars! It'll be enough to pay for a day of excursions for your whole family. -- Excursions...my family and I enjoyed the Atlantis excursion in Nassau...we checked out the Dig and the aquarium. We had more fun in Coco Cay where we didn't have to pay anything to enjoy the beach. There was a BBQ lunch on the island...which was really close to the beach area. It was an enjoyable day of just eating, wading and lounging. We didn't purchase an excursion through RC at Key West. We went on the Conch Train Tour on our own...it was pretty relaxing and informative...kind of like a PBS episode on wheels. -- Overall cruise...well, it would have been nicer if there weren't so many ghetto people on the cruise. We encountered numerous occasions where the guests were rude to the staff. They treated them so unkindly. "Gimme this...do that...." Argh! It was so frustrating!! Hello...they're people...not trained monkeys! Other than that, we enjoyed our cruising experience. Although I think we'll continue to cruise with Carnival instead of Royal Caribbean. Or maybe we'll try Disney Cruise next time... Read Less

This was our first cruise. Our group of 9 included 4 adults (parents) and 5 boys ages 12, 15, 16, 19, and 22. We were very excited because we were upgraded from 2 OV and 1 inside, to two Penthouse suites and 1 OV. Embarkation was very easy for us. We arrived at port around 11:10 and were enthusiastically greeted by workers who had us sit in chairs while they boarded a wedding party. We were then led to lines to get our S & S cards and quickly boarded. We found our beautiful cabins which were immaculate! The stewards involved in our rooms were very friendly and kept our rooms in great order. They provided for all of our needs and wants with genuine friendly smiles! We were eating a lovely lunch in Tiffany's by 12:15 then went to explore the ship! The muster drill was not nearly as bad as I had read and soon we were blowing bubbles at the sail away party on the Lido Deck! Our group ate every dinner in the Imagination Dining room-6:15 seating. Our waiters were wonderful. They quickly learned our preferences and were very entertaining. The food was marvelous in this dining room. Our steaks were tender (even mine which was cooked well done) and the lobster heavenly, and every other dish beautifully presented. We enjoyed the deserts in the dining room as well as in Tiffany's. We never had long lines at the buffet! Tiffany's had a beautiful salad bar with very fresh fruit and salad items! The omelette station was great too! The kids enjoyed the pizza and ice cream station. DH liked the fish & salmon selections available each day! We had room service in am for coffee and tea and the kids had cookies delivered a couple of times and roast beef sandwiches delivered twice! Room service was quick! Gala buffet was beautiful. However, since so many people continued to touch and lick the beautifully displayed food at the viewing, ..we did not care to eat any of it! Entertainment was fun on this cruise. Jorge the CD was great. He has a quick sense of humor! We had one evening of really big winds and waves, when we were avoiding the hurricane. He quickly turned the situation into funny one liners! We enjoyed the Newly Wed and Not So Newly Wed Game, other game shows, Hairy Man Contest, and Elation Idol. The big shows were entertaining. The balancing act was amazing! I was impressed that the Elation Dancers danced and sang nonstop for 35 minutes each night! (One night with the ship really rocking!) My kids also enjoyed the shows! The comedians were funny even though I never went to the late night R-Rated ones. We found plenty of fun things to do each day! I took my 12yo to the Camp Carnival meet the first night. He did not like it. He was in the 12-14 age group with the activities centered around boy/girl activities like dancing, etc. He would much prefer sports type activities and games to teen mixers. There is a huge developmental difference in boys between 12 and 14. We could have put him with 11 year olds but by the time we realized he did not care for his age group--the other kids were off and running in groups and had already completed intro activities! My 16 yo and his 15yo friend had a blast in Club02 at Spirals. They cater to this age group and constantly had age appropriate activities for these kids. My 19 year old (too young to drink but ok to gamble) also had trouble meeting people his age. He went to the one 18+ single meet with his 22 yo brother. He stayed for 45 minutes. Two small groups (group of 2 and group of 3) came in already in a group. They talked and danced among their group and did not mix. He went to the games on the Lido deck and Mikado Lounge, went to a couple of discos, played bingo, wandered around the pool, and the casino, and never had a chance to meet others. The others his age all seemed to be with someone or a small group already. The last day he met a young man his age in the same situation who had spent the week hanging around his 14 yo sister. They could really improve in this area if they had some activities directed at the 18-20yos. This said and done...every single person in our group loved this cruise!!! The crew really had to hustle to get some excursions for our unscheduled stops in the Bahamas. Since we had no time to research the ports, (and this was our first cruise) our group felt like we needed to depend on CCL for our excursions. In Nassau we booked the Pearl Island Snorkel Treasure Hunt. We had a great time but were a bit rushed in eating lunch. Then we took a water taxi to Paradise Island and went to the beach! The waves and water were awesome!! The waves that day were at least 7-8 feet! They towered over my two 6'4 older boys! It was a blast! Then off to Hard Rock Cafe to eat then...Senor Frogs! Believe me our group had never seen anything like it before! (Remember....we are midwesterners! LOL) We were back on board at 10:30pm listening to the band from our balcony and waving a sad goodbye to a beautiful island! In Freeport a band welcomed our ship into port at 7am. Within minutes a wonderfully costumed marching band began entertaining our ship for over an hour! We booked the Tranquility Shores Beach Break with lunch included. A/C bus took us to the beach. The water was beautiful and the sea very calm. Chairs were available but no umbrellas. The bar/restaurant was open but covered and right on the beach! We found a large table near a large open "window" and settled in with a complementary Bahama Mama! The kids played in the water but did not have any toys to play with. Since the water was so calm, the boys were slightly bored! I finally paid for the boys to take a tube ride on a banana boat for 15 minutes. ($15pp USAD) They enjoyed that a lot! Food was good and the facilities had a band playing and organized a few games like egg toss and limbo. Shops were outside the bar area so no one was bothering us on the beach! Left around 3 and boarded ship with time to clean up and get ready for dinner. Key West was the port we least looked forward to. Three of our group live in Florida and could not believe they flew all the way to Texas to end up in Florida. That said, Key West ended up being several peoples favorite stop! We booked the Catamaran sail and snorkel and talk about a professional excursion!!! These guys actually taught people about snorkeling, the fish we would see, about the coral reef, and emphasized safety! They broadcast music for our enjoyment! We sailed about an hour out in beautiful water with a dolphin following us! The water was crystal clear, and we saw a tuna, a shark, and hundreds of colorful fish and plants. After an hour of snorkeling, we sailed back to our ship. On the way back they served water, pop, wine, & beer. As much as we wanted! When we got back, we ate lunch at Billie's and shopped. It was a hot but wonderful day! We spent the last full day enjoying our trip, visiting with our CC friends (Volleyballfamily, Jordonaire, and MRLT) and sitting on our balcony, watching the blue sea roll by, watching the stars, gazing at the full moon's reflection on the ocean at night, and listening to the peaceful waves! Disembarkation was as easy as boarding. We ate breakfast at Tiffany's one last time. We went to the lounge until our color tag was called (right after self-embarkation). We gave the officials our customs' papers, picked up our luggage, got into our limo party bus and was back to our car at the hotel by 10:10. Every person in this group said this was the best vacation ever! The boys are begging to book the Elation again with hopes of going to Merida, Cozumel, and Belize! I thought it was awesome to see Dh and 4 sons in tuxedos. We bought some awesome photos! ($$$!!!) I thought it was a great "Mom's vacation"--no cooking, cleaning, complaining about what and where to eat, and most importantly, others waiting on ME! Can't wait to book again! Read Less

Elation 7/17/05.. Re-routed to the Bahamas and Key West due to Hurricane Emily. This was my first cruise, so I don't have anything to compare it to really. We were, of course, disappointed that we were unable to go to our original destinations, but, hey, who are we to get upset with nature. The Elation is a nice ship.. inside and out, I was impressed... very clean, well-maintained and aesthetically pleasing. I was also impressed with the staff and services I received. Our stateroom steward was very kind and prompt. Wait staff was friendly and funny. The Cruise Director, Jorge Solano, was hilarious.. more so than the ship's stand-up comedian. The food was only fair .. a lot of things tasted very boxed and unfresh.. heavily processed foods. The smoked salmon was very good, though. I would like to see more organic and vegetarian choices. Monday was very rough at sea.. a lot of people got sick and I had to sit out on the captains dinner since I was feeling so woozy. Otherwise, it was smooth sailing for the remainder of the week. The Bahamas were not what I expected.. Nassau was beautiful, but the people seemed very hostile.. lots of people gave me the "stink eye".. not real friendly folks from my experience.. although we did pick up some great Cuban cigars. We took a ferry to Paradise Island, but now I wish we had gone to the Blue Lagoon area, but we just didn't have enough time to plan this out. Nearly all of the excursions were sold out since so many people had been re-routed to the Bahamas due to weather. Freeport was smaller, the people were more friendly, although the ship docks in that yucky industrial area.. looked kind of like Lubbock, TX.. but the other side of the island was nice. Key West was awesome! My favorite port of call.. the people were very cool and laid back.. absolutely beautiful place! Can't say enough positive things about it. The Hemingway home was also awesome. All in all, we had a great experience but just wished we could have had more time to prepare for the last minute changes in destinations. I feel like we missed out on a lot of things that these ports of call had to offer. Drank lots of rum though! Read Less

This was our third cruise in the last twelve months and my wife's tenth or eleventh overall, so we are experienced cruisers at this point. Last summer we cruised on the Disney Wonder and then at Christmas last year we cruised on Carnival Imagination, so we also have recent experience with different lines and ships. We decided to take a quick Independence Day weekend cruise to celebrate my in-laws 40th anniversary. There were six of us all together with my wife, myself and our 7 and 14 year old daughters in one cabin and my in-laws in another cabin four doors down. Both cabins were outside cabins, which proved to be a good choice as the inside cabins are quite a bit smaller than the outside. The cabins on Majesty are smaller than we have been used to on other lines; however, by carefully storing our bags we managed to find plenty of living space for ourselves. The cabin was clean and the decor was very nice. One of lights above one of the bunkbeds did not work (finally fixed on the last day of the cruise after two requests) but everything else was in good repair. Our embarkation process was smooth and we were on the ship and at lunch by 1:00 p.m. There seemed to be many early birds on this cruise because the ship was already quite full by 1:00. We spent most of the first afternoon exploring the ship and unpacking our bags. We had first seating for dinner and the first night everyone was dressed pretty casual as is the norm on most ships. Dinner was good but not outstanding in any way. We found our wait staff to be slow, inattentive and not patient enough to really listen to what we were saying. At one point I was only half done asking our waiter for something and he started to walk away, making it necessary for me to call out for him to stop and come back. Over the three days there were at least half a dozen instances of orders being bungled by not listening to what we asked for. The food all three nights was good but not at the level that starts your mouth watering when you think of taking another cruise. I was somewhat annoyed that the only copies of the children's menu that were available in the dining room were printed in Spanish. Since none of us speak Spanish this went way beyond inconvenience and was a big problem every night trying to find a nice dinner for our seven year old daughter. On the second night I asked twice for the drink waiter to bring our bill, which he finally did, but he took so long bringing my Sea card back that I found myself sitting alone at the table for almost ten minutes. Probably the biggest disappointment in the dining room came on formal night. As mentioned before it was my in-laws 40th anniversary and we wanted to celebrate on formal night. Several weeks before we sailed we called Royal Caribbean and told them we wanted to celebrate their anniversary at dinner. Formal night was nice, but dinner came and went and nothing was done to acknowledge the event. The waiter, to his credit, sensed my displeasure without me having to say anything and fixed it the next night. Overall the dining experience on this cruise was sub-par to what we have been accustomed to on other cruise lines and one of the biggest disappointments of the cruise. Day two of the cruise was sunny and beautiful as we sailed into Coco Cay. We decided to just explore the island on our own so the four adults set off down the beach. Most of the guests stayed up near the tender docks so we almost had the beaches to ourselves. We enjoyed searching the surf line for interesting shells and watching the sand crabs scurry around the beach. We found five conchs that were still alive washed up on the beach so we returned them back to the water. It was fascinating watching the wildlife. Probably one of the highlights of the island was the lizards we saw that were as much as four feet long! By late morning it was getting hot so my wife and I lounged around in a hammock until time for lunch. Lunch on Coco Cay was quite good and you couldn't ask for a better environment to just kick back and relax. Day three found us in Nassau. I had been to Nassau on another cruise but had never actually gone into town so we decided to do some shopping in town in the morning. The straw market has some nice costume jewelry and the vendors are very willing to dicker on price. In the afternoon we all went to Atlantis and spent a couple hours just enjoying the aquarium there. They have a Manta Ray there that has a wing span of twelve feet and weighs about 600 pounds! I could have stood there and watched the fish all day. Let me backtrack and talk a little about the entertainment on the ship. We saw their dance production entitled "Boogie Wonderland" the first night. The show was nicely done and I would rate it slightly better than the shows we saw on Imagination but not nearly as good as Disney (but then who does have shows as good as Disney?). We opted out of the other shows on the cruise because they showed some very good movies on this cruise and we went to two different movies. My seven year old daughter positively loved the children's programs and even didn't want to leave when we picked her up each evening. "Toilet Paper Paul" does a great job with the kids and keeps them interested and involved throughout the whole cruise. My fourteen year old daughter always thoroughly embraces the whole cruise experience but she really threw herself into this one. There were 350 teens on this cruise so she had plenty of potential friends. She spent about 80% of the cruise with a group of about six other teens her age and she said this was her favorite cruise. I got to have a proud father moment when she won the gold medal in female teens rock climbing and beat the time of all of the boys, except one. There was one unfortunate occurrence on the cruise that really jaded my view of Majesty of the Seas and possibly even RCI. When we got on the ship on the first day I decided to purchase the unlimited soda package for both of our girls, which for six dollars a day gives them unlimited soda if they use a special cup RCI gave us. On the first day my younger daughters cup was stolen from the pool area. I went to the soda fountain, showed her card with the soda sticker, explained what had happened and asked for another cup. I was told that the cups had to be accounted for and they could not give us one, they suggested I see the pursers staff. I went to the pursers desk and was told that the cups were only distributed on the first day, so I said no problem just credit me for the two days she can't use. The customer service agent told me that I would have to see the bar manager to get that done and that the bar manager was in a meeting and unavailable. I asked what could be done and he said nothing. I then said we cruise two to three times a year and asked him if he was really willing to lose a potential repeat cruiser over a twelve dollar account credit. He said there was nothing he could do, so I guess I'll take that as a yes to my question. With some cruise lines, like Disney, now offering free soda service on their ships I find this whole unlimited soda card to be nothing more than a scam and I will not fall into that trap again. Overall we all liked the ship, my daughters loved the kids programs and the three days were quite enjoyable. We chose this cruise as a way of evaluating RCI because we're thinking about booking a cruise on their new ship "Freedom of the Seas" that debuts next summer and we hadn't cruised on RCI before. Will I sail on Majesty of the Seas again? No way. Will I sail on RCI again? I can't say never but as of right now I'd have to say probably not. Read Less

I loved this ship. It was the fun ship. My favorite part of the ship was the casino bar the disco and the piano lounge well Cleopatras. it was smooth sailing to Freeport and Nassau i didn't really wanna get off the boat because they had so many activities. The workers were awesome I especially would like to thank Valintin Fredo Dejdej that worked in the Jubilee and all the workers at the casino bar oscar and Joephe sorry i still cant say your name. the dude at the bar next to the pizza bar and the guys at the pizza bar my sister was crazy lol. I really loved talking to the security guards they made me feel safe. The guys who cleaned our cabin did an awesome job animal towels are cool. The only thing I really had a problem with was our room was not where it was supposed to be -- 229 it was one of there hidden rooms on the boat it to took long to find it. Being a part of the vip was awesome i enjoyed lounging and chatting with all the captains yeah you guys was hot lol. everyone on this boat made me feel comfortable and feel like I was the most important thing on this whole world. I plan on coming back over and over gain i loved it thanks to everyone who made this trip memorable cant wait to see you all again and the great thing is that they will all remember me. once in free port we took the yellow boat was a blast we had a live band and unlimited free drinks. when we got onto the island we saw a little bar and went to the beach next to it next to us there was a fence with stingrays in it you could touch them it felt like they was sucking you hand it was awesome. we hung out on the beach got a tan and laid back. the workers were very friendly Nassau was awesome to we went out shopping and drinking. but every time we went to go get back on the boat we got greeted with a smile from the guards and workers. I'm gonna miss them all and can't wait to go cruisin again Read Less

A magnificent ship, but a mediocre cruise. Arriving at the pier was a nightmare. It took one hour to drive from Long Island, and then a full hour to pull in curbside at the dock. That's not NCL's fault, but it is a frazzling way to start a cruise. The ship is impeccably clean, particularly in regards to food service. Mandatory hand sanitizers at each buffet are a reassuring precaution. In general the staff was outstanding, friendly and efficient in their work. Our luggage was in our cabin before we left the pier. There is a decent casino, that seemed to be paying out a number of jackpots. But they only give you a 2 hour window on the last day to cash in your player's club points. There is something thrilling about sailing out of NY harbor and going under the Verrazano Bridge. Now for some of the woes. The number of underage teenagers who were drinking was alarming. Large numbers of children were hanging out in elevators and stairways well into the night. (Where were their parents?) Don't book this cruise for the Ports of Call. Overnight in Nassau gives virtually no time to see anything. Port Canaveral is hardly the height of excitement. The weakest piece of the cruise was the quality of the food. At it's best, it was okay, but there were times it fell short of that. The quality of the lobster was poor. If you want a decent meal you have to shell out extra. The casual dining experience made the whole cruise feel cheap. It felt like I was dining in Denny's at every meal. Their minimum dress codes were not always enforced. It was a hassle having to plan ahead where we wanted to eat, and then hope to get a reservation. Freestyle cruising is not for me. My last comment has nothing to do with NCL, but it did impact our experience. It seemed most of the clientele were from NY/NJ. Not for nothing, but we can be a noisy and crass group. It's back to Celebrity for me next time. Read Less

We cruised on June 20, 2005. This was our first cruise -- my mom, my dad, (both 43), my brother (18) and me. We left Virginia on Sunday, June 19, 2005, to drive to Atlanta. Next Friday and Saturday, we planned to go to two Atlanta Braves games for my brother, the Braves fan, and this seemed to be the most efficient way to travel. We arrived in Atlanta and spent the night at a Best Western. The next morning, we had to fly from Atlanta to Miami. The flight was delayed and we ended up in Fort Myers (as it was stormy and too dangerous to land in Miami...and the airport ended up closing down). The plane needed to refuel and time was ticking away. Eventually, we landed in Miami-at 5:00, the time the ship was to leave. But, the ship wasn't planning to leave until 5:45 since so many people were in the same situation as us. So, we were told to take a taxi to the pier and not to wait for our checked luggage to come out, that it would be sent to Nassau. Well, turns out it ended up getting lost, and we still don't have it. But anyway, the cruise... Despite not having ANY of my clothes, besides the ones I was wearing, I thought the cruise was great. The people at the Purser's Desk were so great, doing everything in their power to get our luggage to us (even though it never showed up). Here's a day by day report. Day 1/Embarkation -- Well, there was no line at the embarkation station, so lucky for us, no waiting! We boarded the ship and saw the Centrum. It was so awesome! I loved the glass elevators! My parents headed to the Purser's Desk to tell them about our luggage. That gave us some toiletries and clean shirts that said "Shipshape." My brother and I watched the ship leaving Miami from the windows in the lobby. So, afterward, we walked to our cabin (5035) and opened the door. My mom was not happy that it was soooo tiny. Imagine four of us, in this tiny room! But with two Pullman beds along with the twin beds, we managed. I actually didn't mind the small space as we were only in there to sleep and shower. So, that night, we explored the ship. We had the second seating in the Maytime dining room. I thought the food was delicious! Our waiter, Neil, and our assistant waiter, Alfred, saw that we were all completely satisfied with our meal. So, we checked out the casino, though I wasn't allowed to play, being under 18. So, afterward, we went to bed. Day 2/Nassau -- We ate breakfast in the Windjammer -- yum! There was a lot of choices on the buffet like fruit, eggs, cold-cuts, eggs, sausage, pancakes, bacon, waffles, French toast, omelettes and so much more). Nassau was really fun. We took a tour of all of Nassau with a trip to Paradise Island. Our guide was very informative and I learned a lot. After the tour, my mom and I went shopping while my dad and brother went back to the ship. We bought a few clothes and toiletries to get by for the next few days. We also went to the Straw Market. I bought a Louis Vuitton belt for $18.00! The trick is to haggle with the people. It's a lot like Chinatown shopping in New York, I thought. Tonight was formal night and we had no clothes. Luckily, the people at the Purser's desk loaned my mom and I some dresses and shoes. My dad and brother received free tux rentals. I didn't feel as glamorous as I would have, but it was still fun. Day 3/Coco Cay -- Again we ate breakfast in the Windjammer. We took our ferry to the island. Once we got there, we bought bathing suits (since ours got lost). Then, we went to our kayak excursion. This was very fun, but be sure to put sunscreen on your thighs-mine got burned! After kayaking, we ate our barbecue lunch. There were little hut-like structures set up like a buffet. I ate ribs and macaroni and cheese. Then, my mom and I went snorkeling. There were lots of little jellyfish swimming around. I didn't think I'd get stung, since they were so small, but one got me anyway. It felt exactly like a bee sting...ouch! We swam to the shipwreck, where there were lots of fish! I swam down to the bottom and looking inside the ship where lots of fish were. Then, we swam back and went back to the ship. We showered and got dressed. Tonight, we decided to go to the entertainment before dinner. It was pretty good. I ordered a virgin Pina Colada -- yummy! Tonight was Italian night -- my favorite!! Chocolate cake for dessert-DELICIOUS!!! After dinner, we went shopping on the ship. Day 4/Key West -- I've been to Key West once before and loved it. But this time, it wasn't as fun. It seemed like everyone there smoked. I hate smoking -- it smells bad. So, that drove me nuts. But, I still enjoyed the day. My mom and I shopped for the entire day. I finally got new clothes!! I bought the cutest sundress at some store (Fast Freddie's or something like that) and it was only $45.00! Not bad! At some shops, there were pairs of simple flip-flops for $30!! I bought mine (that got lost with my luggage) for $5 at Target! But, the day was great. That night, we went to the entertainment again. There were two comedians-very funny! I ordered a virgin peach daiquiri -- yum! Dinner was great, as usual. It was nice to finally look good for dinner. =P Day 5/Disembarkation -- I was sad to leave the ship. It was fun!! But, we ate breakfast in the dining room (food not as good as the Windjammer's) And we got to get off the ship without any trouble. We got a taxi and drove to the Miami airport. It was very interesting because our driver didn't speak English. So, we arrive at the airport and wait in the terminal. Then, we are told that our flight to Atlanta was cancelled! Can you believe our luck?! We had a game to go to! So, we had to fly to Atlanta at 6:30 p.m. and we ended up arriving in Atlanta when the Braves were in the 6th inning. Too late to go. So, we just go to the game the next day, where Andruw Jones leads the team to victory over the Orioles in the bottom of the ninth. Overall, I thought the trip was great! It would have been the best vacation ever if we'd had our luggage. But, I made the best of it and had so much fun! I highly recommend this cruise for anyone who wants to take a first cruise. It was fun! I hope we'll see Royal Caribbean again soon-if I can convince my mom to take another cruise! =) Read Less

Our cruise on the Majesty was our first, and certainly not our last. Having read many reviews and talked to friends who are avid cruisers, we booked a Junior Suite for the balcony and view. Our suite was midway between the Fitness Center and the central stairway leading up to the Windjammer Cafe making it easy to get a workout early each morning, shower in the room, get breakfast, and depart for early excursions in port. We chose to eat all of our evening meals in the main dining room, while other meals were in the Windjammer. Coco Cay was the highlight of this short cruise. This small island owned by Royal Caribbean offers the opportunity to bask on the white sand beach with hundreds of people or by yourselves if you choose. My wife and I walked to the western side of the island and were alone with the exception of the abundant marine life in the clear, shallow waters around the island. We spent ours examining shells of every type. We spent most of the day soaking up the sun and relaxing before heading back to the southern tip of the island for lunch. A barbecue lunch was served from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.. The food was great and the atmosphere better. We knew that any other locations we saw would be anticlimactic after this paradise island. The evening meals were absolutely wonderful. Our waiter and his assistant were consummate professionals. They quickly learned our likes and dislikes and catered to our needs during the entire cruise. The waiter provided his recommendations each evening. We found his guidance to be correct in every case. Several times he even brought other selections for us to sample along with the entree we chose. The quality of the food was impeccable, all prepared well and presented in a most attractive manner. We validated all of the stories we had heard about the great food and service on Royal Caribbean ships. The shows each evening were also very professionally done and were most entertaining. By eating at the main seating, we had plenty of time between our meal and the 9:00 p.m. show. On two evenings, we were able to take an hour nap before participating in the evening events. The onboard internet center makes communication back home easy and quite affordable vice the $7.95 per minute phone option. The cost for internet e-mail usage is 50 cents per minute. We were able to check our mail from our family and write a quick update to them in less than 5 minutes once per day. While these are just a few of the highlights from our first cruise, this was indeed a special time that my wife and I will always cherish. Of the many vacations we have had during our 25 years of marriage, this cruise was the most relaxing, enjoyable, and rewarding experience we have ever had. We returned home and to our jobs invigorated and rejuvenated thanks to the superb Royal Caribbean staff on Majesty of the Seas. We are definitely sold on cruising for all future vacations and booked our next summer vacation before leaving the ship. For a long weekend get away, we enthusiastically recommend a cruise on the Majesty. You will not be disappointed, especially if weather permits a stop at Coco Cay. Read Less

First time cruiser. Very, very!!! apprensive about going because of a real concern with motion sickness. My girlfriend wanted to go badly, and two other friends from church went also. I relunctly said I would go. I purchased the "patch" and off we went. How was my cruise !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AWESOME IN EVERY RESPECT" Left Thursday afternoon in Canaveral heading to Nassau, where we stayed overnight on Friday, departed 7 a.m. Saturday morning and returned to port Sunday morning back here in Canaveral. Food was great, entertainment was great, Ship was very, very, clean, and the crew couldn't have been more fun had we handpicked them. I was fine until the last night at dinner, when the ship rocked a little bit more than I had been used to. Excused myself and laid down for about a half hour and everything passed. Definately hooked now on cruises, will go next year, quite possibly later this summmer.   Read Less

Before I went on my cruise, I used to check out these boards on a daily basis. Although VERY helpful, I can never really give an opinion unless I have been there or experienced things for myself. I'm going to be totally honest with my review. This is not my 1st cruise.. I sailed RCCL Nordic Empress to Bermuda in 2001 and then RCCL Adventure last year on their Southern Caribbean itinerary. I flew into Ft. lauderdale on June 16 and stayed at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino for one night before heading down to Miami to take this Long anticipated cruise. We only decided on a 3 day to Miami because we wanted a quick getaway.. we are getting married next year and didn't want to spend a whole let of money on a vacation. Instead of making a whole long wordy review, I will break everything down for you. Weather in Miami: POURING RAIN. No need to say more. Embarkation: LONG lines.. BUT only because we got to the port at 3:00 when it seemed as if the WHOLE entire ship was boarding at the same time. Make sure you get there early and have all your forms filled out in advanced.. on-line if possible. The wait didn't bother us at all because once we got up to the counter to check in.. It took 5 minutes, and we were on our way up to the ship from there. The check-in clerk was very nice, and assured me that the rain would stop, and not to worry! (The sound of the pouring rain was killing the mood for me.) Rooms: We had an oceanview stateroom. Our luggage arrived very quickly. VERY SMALL, but functional. Any more then 2 people in a room would be WAY overcrowded. Please be aware that there are NO SAFES in any of the rooms. For a 3 day cruise there was enough storage space.. Weeklong?? I don't know how anyone would function or keep themselves organized!!! Our stateroom attendant was very nice-he introduced himself to us 5 min after we got to our room. Food: Buffet -- HORRIBLE. And I'm not one to complain about food... EVER. BUT, it always seemed that the food in the Windjammer was cold and the menu items never changed. Same goes for breakfast & lunch. After 3 days I was tired of eating the food from there. Dining room food was okay.. service was okay.. waiter/asst waiter.. very nice, BUT much better menus on the Adventure of the Seas. Sometimes it seemed as if we were being rushed out of the dining room. We were in and out in and hour every night.. some people would LOVE that, but, quite honestly, I really enjoy the cruise dining room experience -- but it just seemed more better on the other cruises I said on. Ship: Well maintained.. BUT you can tell it was an older ship. if this is your first cruise, you will think this ship is HUGE & beautiful. IT IS a beautiful vessel.. but since I sailed before on AOS, I always found myself comparing the Majesty to the Adventure. Theres NO comparison.. Majesty just doesn't compare. Casino: ALWAYS packed.. You will have a hard time finding a table. Entertainment: Just okay. Saw the Love & Marriage game show... that was pretty funny. I also seen an adult comedian.. I've seen better on Comic Strip live. And and impressionist.. didn't do anything for me at all... He wasn't very convincing. One pool was closed on the deck.. don't know why??? Ports Coco Cay: ABSOLUTELY beautiful!!! Fun day.. You will have a blast. Nassau: HORRIBLE & run-down. I've seen better neighborhoods in the worst part of Brooklyn. Paradise Island was very nice though. Definitely visit the Atlantis.. such a beautiful place.. although.. (I know It seems like I'm being negative this WHOLE REVIEW) I've seen better hotels on the strip in Vegas. Please don't hate me.. I'm not usually this bitter about things!!! I've been on better cruises and I was disappointed with RCCL with this cruise. I expected a while lot more. Read Less

We sailed on the Disney Wonder and I can't tell you what a wonderful experience we had. We arrived in Port Canaveral around 1:00 (we had been staying in Disney World and were bussed from that point). Check in was a breeze (providing that you had all of your documents completed, which you should do at home) and we were up at the Beach Blanket Buffet eating lunch by 1:30. Food was plentiful and very tasty. We had an ocean view stateroom, and I can tell you that our window was large (not just a tiny porthole). We watched the ship sail away, and then got ready for dinner. We had early seating, which means either 5:45, 6:00 or 6:15, which they just changed to in order to avoid everyone coming to dinner at 6:00. I can't tell you how great our server and assistant server were (JoJo and Evandro). They made us feel welcome, and above all they treated our 10 year old daughter like she the most special child on board. They teased her and did magic tricks and napkin folding with her. She giggled the entire time (in fact she cried all the way home, because she was going to miss them so much!). The food was outstanding. I don't know why people complain so much. There is always something for everyone and it was always hot and tasty, after all, you are on vacation and any food that you don't have to cook should be a treat. After the first night, they knew what we wanted to drink, and we never had to ask for it again. Nassau -- We took the Blackbeard's Cay snorkel and stingray adventure an had a great time. Stingrays were plentiful and we couldn't get our daughter out of the water. Lunch was so-so (included in the cost of the excursion). There was also a limbo dancer who was awesome. Did a little shopping afterward - be warned they attempt to get you to buy anything and everything and you have to be firm and say "no thank you" and just walk away. Castaway Cay -- My husband went parasailing (he had fun, although it is kind of costly), we also took a banana boat ride, which ran out of gas, but we had fun, and we rented the snorkel equipment and floats, which we used a lot because it was warm and sunny. Hint-not everyone in your party needs to get the rental package, we all did (3 of us) and we would have only needed to rent 1 or 2, as we were not all in the water at the same time. Last day at sea was gorgeous, we just walked around, sat in the sun, etc. The shows were awesome (even my husband said so, and he isn't one to enjoy stage shoes). The characters were out all of the time, however sometimes the lines were long to get pictures and autographs. This was the best vacation we ever took. The ship was splendid, the service outstanding and the food was wonderful! We are looking forward to booking a 7 day cruise in the near future. Debarkation was so easy. We had an early breakfast, got in line to get off the ship, found our luggage, went through customs, check in curbside by the Disney Cruise busses, and was at the Orlando airport by 9:30. Anyone with any questions may certainly email me. Read Less

This was my first cruise, and it was WONDERFUL! I had a terrific time. I say the Carnival Fantasy to the Bahamas is a great starter cruise line, cruise ship, and destination. For the price, and experience. The boat is not the biggest or newest of boats, but it sure was fun. We had a great time. We went with about 25 people, and our rooms were on 2 different decks, but they were close to each other. I shared a room with my cousin, and our room was nice. The beds are fabulous! The sheets were nice and white, and they seemed to be clean (we still brought our Lysol though). The beds were so comfortable that every time I would even sit on the bed I would get sleepy. It was really cool! The rooms were small, but we were never there so that was no biggie. The entertainment was pretty good. We tried to catch a show every night. The Las Vegas style shows were not my cup of tea, but the people in the shows were really good. My cousin and I kind of found that there were big time gaps between scheduled entertainment so we would walk around and talk to people that we didn't know quite often. This was the best part though. Our room steward was WONDERFUL!!! He kept tabs on us. Every time that we stepped out of the room, and came back our room was cleaned! It was great! I need one of those at home :) He would line all of our shoes up in a row, and leave us the little towel animals. It was cool. Now, the food in the dining room each night was ok. Some things would be really good, and others would be ok. Nothing was like totally nasty, but I guess I was expecting more. But if you didn't like what they were serving you could always go get hamburgers and hot dogs, and pizza and things like that. The best thing was the desserts! They were all good. The best dessert was the cheesecake. I've NEVER had cheesecake like this. It was like cake, but it was creamy, and just delicious. The night that they did the ice sculpting was when they put they put the good desserts out! Cakes and pies, and cookies, and ice cream, and EV-ER-RY-THING! Best I have ever had. The pictures were great. Expensive but great! I loved the poses. It's like you're a movie star. They like mob you to take pictures. I loves it. I stopped at every station and took some...lol. I had a great time. Carnival has great prices, and we even ended up getting an upgrade. All the crew, and waiters were awesome, very friendly, and helpful. Embarkation, and Debarkation was smooth, quick, and easy. We went to the Bahamas so shopping was great and bargaining shopping was the best thing I ever learned to do. I just had a great time. We are even planning to go to Eastern Caribbean next year on the Fascination. I'm expecting great things again. I would like to use other cruise lines to compare and contrast. But overall, it was a great experience, and I loved every minute of it. Read Less

I took my first cruise with Carnival about three years before I did this cruise. I loved the seven day tour of the Western Caribbean but I couldn't afford that package again so I opted for the 3 day Bahamas cruise thinking I'd save money. HA!. After taxes, fees, and the cost of a balcony (who wants to cruise without a balcony?) the saving was nominal. Maybe two hundred bucks compared to what you'd spend on a seven day. The process of getting on the boat went well because I had a suite and that entitled me to "skippers club" benefits. My girlfriend and I were placed in a small quiet room where we did all our in processing while hundreds of people waited in line. SWEET. Once upstairs we had to wait for customs to get ready and then had to hustle to the front because the Carnival workers didn't ask for Skipper's Club members upstairs. Once onboard, our breath was taken away (in a good way). Walking on to one of these boats and knowing your vacation is starting is a great feeling. Getting to our room was kind of difficult as we had to walk to the back of the boat to catch an elevator that went to the verandah deck. Our room was (like the whole boat) was old. The furniture was worn, the light on the balcony was broken (it was finally fixed on night 3) but it is vacation and who wants to be in a room? We went out on the deck and it was raining. It rained almost every day. That is not Carnival's fault but it does stink to cruise in crummy weather. On board, we found there was plenty yet nothing to do. Lots of things scheduled but nothing that you'd really enjoy. All in all we ate, gambled, and drank for the majority of the cruise. You're never far from a bar and there are waiters walking around constantly to serve food. Lemonade and other juices are free but soda and drinks cost. I prefer Corona beer so I spent around five bucks a beer. Tips are included. Some people sneak alcohol on board but that's just too much worrying for me. I had my fair share of drinks and so did my girlfriend and we probably spent about two hundred bucks over four days on alcohol alone. Breakfast features "sweaty eggs" as my girlfriend called them (I think they were made with Egg Beaters), the bacon was burnt but I like bacon that way, but on average the food is good. Breakfast is a little disappointing but it you like omelets you don't have to worry about the scrambled eggs getting cold. Beware, the omelet line is insane. Lunch was much better. The hamburgers and hot dogs are REALLY GOOD! Like two hamburgers and three hot dogs for me good. Dinner isn't so bad. The best food is in the dining hall but the buffet does all right. Honestly, I ate more hamburgers and hot dogs. Room service is extremely slow. Order your food around 2pm and you should have it on time for dinner. As I said, it rained almost the entire time. We got to the Bahamas and it was just more of the same. We choose the snorkeling shore excursion and found that the people of the Bahamas were pretty friendly but the guys in charge of our excursion were more interested in drinking than doing their jobs. If your girlfriend is "eye candy" be prepared to put them in check because a few drinks makes them a little too friendly. We snorkeled for awhile before I thought that it might not be a good idea to be swimming in dark waters. Back on land we ate some conch fritters (good going down but bad going out), had 151 punch and generally relaxed. Back on board we did more of the same. Eat, drink and gambled. I did walk away 500.00 richer which didn't hurt at all. Honestly, the last day was the best. I woke up and the sun was shining, I had coffee and sweaty eggs on my balcony and enjoyed the pool. All in all, I love cruising but this didn't feel to well planned out by Carnival. For a cruise this short, the price should be much lower. If you're going to do this and you want a balcony I advise you to go on a longer cruise. My next cruise is a seven day of the Eastern Caribbean and I'll let you know how that one goes. Read Less

My husband and I and our 2 children (daughter 2 and son 7) sailed on the Dawn as our first family cruise. Embarkation was not what we expected. We were told that we would be able to enjoy the VIP lounge since we had a Penthouse suite. Well, the VIP's were already on board and that section closed by the time we got to the pier (about 12:30). But, we were able to take advantage of the Lattitudes line since we were both Lattitudes members. We arrived at our cabin a little under an hour from the time we set foot on the pier. What a surprise when we got to our cabin. The AB Penthouse was a dream! It was very child friendly. I felt comfortable enough not to have to watch my 2 year old daughter's every move. There really wasn't anything she could get into or hurt by (other than opening every drawer and cabinet, which she did frequently). The balcony was very secure. And, short of standing on the chaise lounge and jumping over, the kids were in no danger out there. Cabin amenities: 4 TV's, 2 full bathrooms, master bedroom, small bedroom(I mean SMALL! But, perfect for the kids), living area (very comfy), and dining area. And, storage, storage, storage!!!! There were cabinets and drawers EVERYWHERE! The Jacuzzi tub in the master bathroom was small, but very inviting. I got much use out of it. The shower stall was huge and had a floor-to-ceiling window overlooking the ocean. Very, very nice. There are 3 separate phone lines in the cabin. One in the master bedroom, one in the dining area (cordless....I brought this with me everywhere when I wasn't with the kids), and one in the small bedroom. It was interesting how they all worked. If someone called the cabin, all 3 phones rang. But, you could use one phone to call the other. Nice treat. The Kids Crew actually used our phone instead of the pager whenever I dropped my daughter off (she's not potty trained yet). Our butler, Lanie, was absolutely wonderful. If we needed ANYTHING, she got it for us. Never once did she say "no." And, Carlos, our concierge, was extremely accommodating. The one thing that NCL absolutely excels in is service. Everywhere we went, we were met with smiling, warm, friendly and genuine crew members. I was most impressed with how our children were treated. They lived like royalty (as did we!). I found the Kids Crew to be better than even the few day care centers I have utilized over the years. The staff were very competent and friendly. And, it was clear how much they loved children. I couldn't keep my kids out of there! They loved the activities, the staff, the specials, the toys, the games.... I could go on and on. The food was fabulous. Every morsel I ate seemed to melt in my mouth. The service in all the restaurants we went to (Venetian, Aqua, Blue Lagoon, Garden Cafe, Le Bistro, and Cagney's) was superb. The wait staff seemed to know EXACTLY what we needed when we needed it. Whenever we were with our children, the service was quick and efficient. Whenever it was just the two of us, the service was slower, more relaxing, and intimate. We ordered room service for breakfast nearly every morning and twice for dinner. The food was always hot and delicious. We experienced the pools a few times. My son loved the T Rex kids pools, but felt a bit overwhelmed by the adult pool. Both kids absolutely LOVED the Kids cafe, a railed-off area of the Garden Cafe which has everything child-high: from the buffet itself right on down to the tables and chairs. There are a few adult-size chairs up against the railings, though. And, of course, my kids ate the same thing day-in and day-out: dinosaur-shaped chicken fingers and fries. You can order these in any of the main restaurants. These are also on the kids buffet, along with hamburgers, hot dogs, jell-o, and brownies and cookies. The shore excursions we chose were The Magic Kingdom at Port Canaveral and an air-boat tour of the Everglades in Miami. Both were excellent, but exhausting. We hung out on Great Stirrup Cay for several hours and watched beautiful fish swimming all around us. And, we saw Nassau on our own because we had been there a few times already. Note: you can tour "The Dig" at Atlantis for free after 8:00 p.m. It's usually $29 per person. Our cabin stewards were perfectly wonderful. We had towel animals nearly every night (which the kids got a BIG kick out of!). Our cabin was spotless every day. They were very efficient, thorough, and unobtrusive. The best thing about NCL is that they seem to know EXACTLY what I want, how I want it, and when I want it. I never needed anything (except maybe more sleep!), and I only ever had to ask for anything once and it was delivered in minutes. We were given so much special attention that we are now life-long NCL die-hard fans. Note: this wasn't our first NCL cruise and it definitely won't be our last. We are beginning to plan a family reunion cruise sometime during the summer of 2007 and we're probably going back to the M/S Dawn. Read Less

My wife and I had a wonderful cruise with Norwegian Dawn, our best cruise ever. This was our 12th cruise in the last 5 years, but the first with NCL. Our personal meaning is that the service from the crew and the quality of the food is better on the Dawn, than for instance on the RCCL, except for the food and the interior in the Garden Cafè. The RCCL's Windjammer Cafès are much better, and we only ate one lunch at the Garden Cafè. All the other lunch meals we either eat in the Venetian Restaurant or outside on deck, besides the pool. The service in the dinning rooms were excellent. We will though especially mention the service we received from the waiters in the Venetian Restaurant, when eating breakfast and lunch, we have never seen anything like that great service. No problem getting a table for two, also for breakfast and lunch. We found the food in the main restaurants and in the Le Bistro French Restaurant to be of a high quality and tasteful (Le Bistro was the only restaurants with a cover charge that we ate dinner in -- twice, and we had excellent meals.) The other dinners we ate in the Venetian and Impressions Restaurants. We liked the large Venetian best, so much to see and watch, and with an overwhelming interior. Except from the Bartender at the Bimini top deck bar, all the crew members we meet was very nice and polite, the best we have experienced on any cruise. We were very satisfied with that the Dawn had own kid pools fare away from the main pool. For that reason we found it easy to use the main pool -- most of the time without many children being together with us in the pool, or in the bubble baths. We could really recommend a cruise with the Norwegian Dawn. We had a very great time on a beautiful ship with an excellent crew. Read Less

We got into Norfolk around 12 p.m. and my husband and my cousin dropped us off at Nauticus and received a paper stating that we would be picked up by a shuttle bus when we arrived back and taken to the Cedar Point parking lot for pickup by my husband. This was a little confusing as he is not familiar with this area but the map was helpful. Once the porter had our luggage and we paid him his fee of $1.00 per bag which we had around 9 -- so it was worth paying him to move all of the luggage and we went up the entrance to Nauticus and were greeted by Carnival staff and escorted to where we checked in. This went smoother than I thought it would. I did take my marriage license and was asked to see it -- but they told me they would have let me on without it. Took us about 10 minutes for all 3 of us so we found a place to sit and waited for the ship to arrive -- which it did around 1 p.m. What a sight to see her pull into Nauticus. We were told we would be able to board around 1:30 so we got in line and around 1:15 - 1:30 we were let go to enter the security checkpoint and follow the waiting line until we got to the 2nd checkpoint were you went through xray. We waited about 30+/- minutes until this opened and proceeded into the next phase inside where we waited until we had permission to get on board which was around 20 +/- minutes. The waiting time for each was not bad and we were so excited that we did not care about waiting. Once we got through this checkpoint than the next thing was having our pictures taken for the S/S card and then on board we were. We headed straight towards our room on the Panorama deck. I had ordered a congratulation package for my daughter and was hoping it would be up when we entered the room--sure enough when she opened the door the room was all decked out with congratulations gifts. Everything was better than expected in our balcony room. We did have to ask for another robe since there were the 3 of us and some extra pillows -- which was done very quickly and we had taken a cooler for our drinks and before I could ask our stewardess about filling it up she had all ready done it and did so each day without asking. I had prepaid my tips so I did not know what kind of service we would get but everything and anything we requested was done -- even a chocolate chip cookie for me since I do not like peppermint. Because of great service we gave them additional tip for taking such good care of us. Now where do I begin -- Ship is a little hard to figure out but by Tuesday I could find my way around okay without the help of the girls. We were on the Panorama deck so going to dinner was a little tricky -- go down to deck 5 walk into the casino and then take those elevators to deck 3 for dinner -- not too bad -- we requested the 6:15 dinner but instead got the 8 p.m. instead so I requested 6:15 again and received the 5:45. This was a little too early for me and the 8 was too late so the 6:15 would have been perfect if I could have gotten it. The food in the Paris dining room was wonderful and our waiters were great. They flirted with the girls every night and even asked were they were one night that they did not show up. Adam was from Romania and I can't remember where Benjamin was from but both of them were wonderful. By the second night Benjamin knew that I drank decaf coffee and my daughter drank cappuccino and Amanda drank regular coffee. Anything we requested was immediately taken care and we never needed anything. We also gave them an additional tip for wonderful service. The dancing and singing in the dining room was enjoyed each night that it occurred. It was very funny -- the last night we had 8 -13' waves and it was very hard to walk around but the dancers did not have any problems at all. I had two breakfast in the dining room which were excellent -- coffee was better in the dining room than on the Lido deck and we had lunch which was excellent too. The rest of the time we ate at the South Beach Restaurant -- food was pretty good--hamburgers would wonderful--some of the best I have ever had -- girls tried the deli and said it was great and the pizza was also good. I did not like the tea at the South Beach -- it tastes like a mixture of instant and brewed tea and I did not like it. We just drank water at dinner--which was pretty good and the rest of the time we drank the lemonade -- which was wonderful and I had the fruit punch mixed with lemonade which was great. The show that we saw was pretty good -- costumes were beautiful. I will say one thing -- please check your S/S card each and every day. They may some mistakes on mine and I had to go and see the purser to get it taken care of. Somehow, when my daughter signed up to use her charge card on her S/S card somehow it did not go through and everything she charged was billed to my card and her card but this was soon taken care of and then I was billed for two drinks that I did not order in the Rome Lounge during the show and had to go back to see the purser again and file a complaint -- they checked into the bar tabs and found I only had one drink and therefore credited back my account. I lost and won money at the casino but could not stay in there long because of all the noise--this was not my favorite thing. . Nassau -- Beautiful -- took a private tour to Atlantis and surrounding area by taxi for $20.00 per person -- around 2+ hours -- Atlantis was beautiful -- aquarium was unbelievable -- we did not get to the dig as time was short. Our next excursion was the dolphin encounter which we all enjoyed. Touching, petting, hugging and kissing the dolphin was exciting. We had our pictures taken with the dolphins and I also bought the video offered. Straw market was crowded and bartering made life interesting. We made our first phone calls at NAssau where we bought our phone card. DO NOT BUY A PHONE CARD FROM ANYWHERE ELSE. THEY WILL NOT WORK IN NASSAU OR FREEPORT. You can buy phone cards at the Festival Place and they also have people their who will assist you in placing the calls. They also helped set up our taxi excursion...We had someone by the name of Johnny be Good and he was a great driver. The only thing I could not get use too is that they drive on the left side of the road--that was hard for me to get use too -- can't thinking we were going to be hit. Found out later in the day that they have a shuttle bus that will take you from the ship to the Festival Place which is about 1/4 mile if you walk it--the humidity there was very high so the bus was great to have. We had a deck party the night we left Nassau and prepared for our next port of call -- Freeport. Not as pretty as Nassau--we did do an excursion there -- Tranquility Shore -- the beach was very windy and very choppy when we were there. The water temperature was great and the food at the buffet was good. I also got to eat some fresh conch salad -- (Yes Cheryl -- I did eat some of this) and I thought it was pretty good. I wish the beach had been calmer than what it was. Leaving Freeport was sad because we knew our trip was coming to a close. We had some rough waves coming back 8-13' -- and I battled a little seasickness again but nothing Bonnie could not take care of. Getting back into Norfolk must have been find because when we woke up we were already docked at Nauticus and by 7:30 they were making announcements about how you disembark. We went to have breakfast on the Lido deck around 8:30 and had just sat down to eat when they called our deck to disembark..so we finished eating asap and preceded to go down to deck 0 which was a little difficult as we got on the wrong elevators but found out way down into the long lines. Our only saving grace was when a staff person came and asked if anyone had black tags -- which we did and we were pulled out of the lines and went to get our bags. We were missing two pieces to they had to locate them and within 15 minutes we had a porter and we were taken to the shuttle bus and within another 15 minutes we were at the Cedar Point parking lot waiting for our ride. This was a once in a lifetime experience and I would not hesitate going again on the Triumph. Chris Jefferson the cruise director is leaving for 6 months vacation and I do not know who the new cruise director will be. I loved hearing him talk with his British accent. He was very funny at times. It took me about 3 days to get feeling normal again and facing reality again was hard but it was great seeing my grandkids, hubby and daughter I had left at home. Would I cruise Carnival again --MOST DEFINITELY. Triumph Again -- MOST DEFINITELY -- probably would not go the the Bahamas again but anywhere else would be great. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to email me. Just put Triumph in the subject box. Read Less

I'm a young married gal with a 20 month old baby and as a couple we have cruised 6 times. After cruising with Princess, I have sworn I never cruised with Carnival again. However, due to pricing and lack of time, we decided to try again. So we booked a 3 night with M/S Fantasy sailing June 16th. The first thing that disappointed me was a greeting from a Port Officer who yelled from the distance "shut off the phone." Well, my husband and I got separated at the Port and was just trying to find him since he had some of the documents needed to check in. Again, this officer rudely came up to me and yelled "just shut it off, this is a restricted area." First, there were no signs anywhere that stated that fact, and I'm not sure is a common knowledge. Needless to say, I was already upset with this treatment on my first day of vacation. Check in was a breeze. Cabin was ready, cleaned and our steward, Owen introduced himself and asked if there was anything we needed. I was impressed. We saw him often, so his tip was well deserved. Food was awesome and desserts were yummy. Our dining team, Felix and Andrey were also great. I was not looking forward to the safety drill outside with a baby, so when they directed us inside the Spectrum I was relieved. However, I think having it in the major theater would have been better like in the Grand Princess. We were so comfortable and were able to appreciate the seriousness of it. I have to comment on the "Las Vegas Show." I was glad my baby fell sleep and my husband stayed with him in the cabin. Normally, we do everything as a family but this time, the content of the show and the clothing was very inappropriate for children. The Broadway show was much better and we enjoyed it except for the soldiers raping women (implied) and physically abusing them, women wearing lingerie, what the heck are you thinking? Again, there are children in the audience. Certainly, you could do without this part of the show. On the day of debarkation, I needed to change my baby's diaper, and no changing table in the ladies room. What a hassle. The best thing about this cruise, we were able to get great massages for $1 a minute. Will I cruise again with Carnival? May be. But certainly try Princess again. Read Less