MAJESTIC PRINCESS Reviews

People usually read these reviews to learn about the bad things. When you pay large amounts of money you want only good things.

We were on the Majestic Princess Fire & Ice Cruise. 26-days total. We had a Mini-suite.I want to say that the first half of the cruise was for the most part incredible.

I want to mention 4 crew members who were absolute SUPER STARS:

Our cabin steward “Neptali”

Dining room servers; Svitlana (Lana) & Ryan

Restaurant Manager named Lazaro

Thank-you all for making our cruise better.

Now it’s time for what you have been waiting for – the bad stuff:

MDR:

Limited choices in the MDR. Small portion sizes at times. In 26-days they had only one lobster night. Breakfast and lunch service was always very slow.

PRINCESS SHORE EXCURSIONS: I wouldn’t recommend them.

Poor crowd control. One day we were in a “forever” line when one of the crew came down handing out stickers. When he got to us my wife was getting the tickets he said “no tickets no stickers”, I told him that we had been waiting 20-minutes so he could wait 10-seconds. He didn’t so that allowed others behind us to get off the ship first. I complained to Guest Services. No follow-up from Princess.

Horrible Guest Services!

DO NOT book the Paris excursion. 3-hour bus ride to Paris; 1.5-hour lunch (dry chicken and rice); 20-minutes at the Eiffel Tower.

There was also a tour that had a double deck bus (actually 3-decks). It was old and dirty. The heater was going upstairs (the people were really hot); downstairs was freezing cold because the ACV was wide open trying to cool the upstairs. We were sitting down on the lowest lever. We couldn’t see out to our left and the bottom of the window was eye level on the right side where we were sitting.

We had weather issues that caused the captain to cancel our last Norway stop and Iceland stop. We went to Belfast then 6-days to NYC. We’ve been cruising for 26-years so we understand weather issues. They did give us $100 obc.

The crew member, male, had a habit of putting stickers directly on the women’s chest. Other cruise lines do not allow this; the male crew members hand the stickers to the female guests. Minor thing I know.

Last problem: On our last sea day my wife was sleeping in. I had gone down to the MDR for breakfast. I returned to our room around 1030-1100. There was our cabin steward, and 3 other crew members at our cabin door. My wife had her head stuck out talking with them. I learned that they wanted to go through our cabin to paint the balcony. There was no prior notice given to us and my wife wasn’t dressed for the day. So I slipped by them and told then to go away.

Later I went down to Guest Services to complain. Guest Services said that it was “normal” procedure. Dozens of cruises, hundreds of days at sea and never experienced customer service like this.

Since it was “normal” procedure for Princess I did something that isn’t normal procedure for me, for the first time I removed the gratuities for the 2nd half of the cruise. I have never done that before. We still tipped the 4 people that made our cruise better.

BOTTOM LINE:

We have a 25-day cruise booked with Princess later this month (different ship) and a 21-day cruise in 2027 (back on this ship). After that we are done with Princess.

They have become Carnival with table cloths.

I bought a Future Cruise Package rather reluctantly. The entire process has been unbelievably great! Everyone was helpful beyond expectation with hotel reservations, perks from the package, and I just received a refund check promptly from the cruise line for expenses not used!

The cruise was great, food could be improved a little- sorry. The pizza was delicious and always hot. Hamburger meat needs a lot of improvement. One was enough for me, and hubby refused to eat all of his. Spoke to a chef about it, but you know that probably stopped there:)

Excursions and tenders were fine with us. We unfortunately missed Edinburgh because water was too rough for tenders. That was the main reason we had booked the British Isles Cruise.

Staff and cleanliness awesome. We have booked a second cruise and looking forward to it!

We were not looking for lots of entertainment or activities. They were available if you wanted it.

The cruise had many port stops and only 2 days at sea. I felt it was very busy and would have enjoyed another day at sea. Especially in the beginning. The food was ok but not fantastic. I am celiac and the they were very accommodating. I do think the deserts are very lacking. They were almost always ice cream, mousse, or rice pudding. The English tea was terrible. The gluten free scones were like sawdust. The international cafe was so disappointing. Never a gluten free savory and always a rice pudding or mouse for the gluten free option. It would be nice to have cookies or cake. There were some chocolate chip cookies on the buffet but they were often gone. The breakfast at the buffet was great. I ate an omelet every day. Poor gluten free options for pancakes or French toast. The weather was fantastic so watching the World Cup games around the pool was super fun. The ship supplied blankets on the chilly nights. I love the burger and fries around the pool. One of my favorite things for lunch. Overall the ship was good, entertainment was ok and the ports were great.

The ship was good. Too many children for me but they all received excellent entertainment. Lots of laughter everywhere.

Food was very good and the wine was very nice.

Our cabin had a major leak the first night and they moved us.

The ports of call were all interesting.

I would have liked more talks, or enrichment.

There wasn’t a great deal of educational value.

Plenty of dancers and lovely shows. Some of the singers were incredible.

I’d say they did a great job with their restaurants. The specialty dining areas. Most of them were incredibly noisy with all the loud entertainment from every conceivable corner. Not ideal for older people who would like a little peace and quiet now and then. The Italian restaurant was the quiet place. We ended up eating there several times.

You could tell the staff were overworked. Busy busy busy. Anyway it was actually a fill in cruise before my uniworld river cruise and it turned out to be much more enjoyable than uniworld. So thank you majestic princess, you surprise me at how much I enjoyed the cruise.

I need to start out saying that this was my 37th cruise but my first on Princess. Some of my friends choose Princess only but I have always been a Royal or Celebrity cruiser. So n saying this I would argue Celebrity is still my go to but I was pleasantly ( for the most part) impressed by this cruise journey.

Let's start with embarkation out of Southampton, England. It was quick and uneventful - 5 star on that metric, the medallion process is definitely a big plus on this cruise line- makes everything quick and simple.

Second, the stateroom- we had a mini suite on deck 12- very spacious room, plenty of storage and space and the alcove area where closet and bathroom were located were ideal! Another big plus ! The balcony however was the smallest I've ever experienced but thankfully we were in the UK so truly not balcony weather- big NO if a Caribbean cruise for sure.

Next the food- despite a little snafu with our pre-arranged dining plans which was quickly corrected , I must say the food was delightful even in the Main dining areas. We ate mostly at specialty restaurants but the few nights at symphony were super- choices were good and varied each night we were there . I never had a bad meal and I truly am a food critic! The service was very nice for food / drink requests were a bit slow - does not seem to have enough bar facilities in restaurants!

The specialty restaurants were exquisite- our favorites were Sabatini and the steak house Crown. I recently saw a post noting poor preparation of beef on this ship- that certainly was not our experience! Kudos to the chefs and wait staff on Majestic Princess.

Ports of call

Magnificent!! Every port was exactly what we wanted. We did use private tour guides as I came with a rather large group so we were looking for personalized tours. Nonetheless, the ports were great. We did miss Edinburgh due to high winds which was quite disappointing but a reasonable excuse to return to Scotland .

Here's the not so great part of this adventure- the entertainment! Wow! What a disappointment ! Except for a couple of visiting singers and the lovely couple at the Irish Pub- the experience was dismal! The ship's singers and dancers were something out of a high school performance-not even fair - sad to say- for 12 night cruise, I expected more show stoppers!

The staff were all friendly! The ship is in need of some repair but very clean!!! One issue with bar staff is the lack thereof- too few waiters given the number of people sailing/ could take up to 45 minutes to get a drink ! Little disappointing for sure !

In summary, would I recommend Majestic Princess? absolutely!!! We had a wonderful time with wonderful people- crew and guests!!

Overall, we enjoyed many aspects of the cruise, and I want to start by saying that the staff was absolutely lovely. They were friendly, helpful, and seemed to do everything they could to make our experience enjoyable. My concerns are more with some of the planning, organization, maintenance, technology, and logistics of the cruise.

One of the biggest problems was the tender process. On one of our port days, we arrived in port around 7:00 a.m. and had activities planned for the morning. However, because we had to wait for our tender number to be called, we were not able to get off the ship until around noon. The process was extremely slow, and as a result, we completely missed what we had planned for that morning.

Getting back to the ship by tender was just as frustrating. Several times, there were extremely long lines, and we waited an hour to an hour and a half just to get on a tender back to the ship. When the tender ride itself is approximately 25 minutes, this becomes a major part of the day. It is predictable that a large number of passengers are going to return closer to the final boarding time, so I feel there should be significantly more tenders available during those peak periods. If the ship does not have enough tenders to handle that volume, perhaps an outside tender service should be arranged. This was one of the biggest complaints we heard from passengers throughout the cruise.

Another issue was the Premier dining reservations. I went into the app approximately six months before the cruise and still could not get reasonable dinner times. Most of what was available was around 5:00–5:40 p.m. That made it extremely difficult on port days because we would return to the ship and barely have enough time to shower and change before having to rush to dinner. We paid extra for these dining experiences and wanted to be able to enjoy them rather than feel rushed.

Eventually, I had to go down and cancel several of our dining reservations because the early times simply did not work with our schedule. What made this particularly frustrating was that when we were actually in the restaurants, we often saw plenty of empty tables. I do not understand why times around 6:30 or 7:00 p.m. were not available when there appeared to be open seating.

The early dinner times also made it difficult to attend many of the shows. It felt as though we were constantly having to choose between dinner and entertainment rather than being able to reasonably enjoy both.

I also think the specialty dining restaurants could benefit from occasionally changing or adding something to the menu. We dined at some of these restaurants several times, and it would have been nice to have at least one different featured entrée, appetizer, or special each evening instead of seeing exactly the same menu every visit.

Sabatini’s was unfortunately not our favorite. We had several dinners scheduled there, but after our first experience, we decided to cancel the remaining reservations because we simply did not feel the food was very good.

We also ate at The Catch, and while there were things we enjoyed, there were a few occasions when the fish did not seem particularly fresh. At a specialty seafood restaurant, especially one that guests are paying extra to experience, I would expect the seafood to taste consistently fresh and be of a noticeably higher quality.

We also had a very frustrating experience at O’Malley’s Pub. We ordered fish and chips and waited approximately 45 minutes, but the food never arrived. We asked several times and were repeatedly told that it was coming, but after waiting that long we finally gave up and left. We still do not know what happened to the fish and chips. At that point, we were simply over it and went somewhere else to get dinner. A delay can happen, but 45 minutes with no food and no clear explanation was excessive.

Another concern involved food allergies. One of the people traveling with us has a dairy allergy. She had indicated this in her information ahead of time, but at almost every dining experience she still had to explain that she could not have dairy. Staff would sometimes bring her milk or assume she was vegan, and she would have to explain again that she was not vegan—she simply had a dairy allergy. For something as important as a food allergy, I feel this information should be extremely visible on the guest’s profile so that the dining staff immediately knows about it without the guest having to repeatedly explain it.

We were also disappointed with the hot tubs. It seemed that there was consistently at least one hot tub that was not working. On this particular itinerary, the weather was not really conducive to spending much time in the regular pools, so the hot tubs were understandably much more popular and important to passengers. Having one out of service made the remaining ones very crowded. On top of that, the hot tubs that were operating were often not even very warm. For a cooler-weather cruise, I think keeping all of the hot tubs functioning and at an appropriate temperature should be a priority.

The app was another major frustration. It felt extremely limited and not very useful for actually managing the cruise. Dining was basically the main function we used, and even then, when I tried to cancel dining reservations through the app, it would not allow me to do so. I ended up having to go in person to make changes that should have been simple to handle from my phone.

I also do not understand why the app does not put everything in one place. Excursions, onboard activities, dining, entertainment, reservations, schedules, and cancellations should all be easy to find and manage within one app. Guests should be able to open the app and clearly see what is happening that day, what they have booked, what excursions are available, what activities are scheduled, and make changes without having to go to different places or stand in line for help. For a cruise line of this size, the technology should make the vacation easier, not more frustrating.

The Wi-Fi was also disappointing, especially because we paid extra for it. Getting connected in the first place was so difficult that we had to go down and ask for help just to get it set up correctly. Even after it was connected, it would constantly drop off and we would have to reconnect over and over again. If guests are paying for Wi-Fi, it should be simple to connect to and reasonably reliable throughout the cruise. Instead, it became another thing we had to repeatedly troubleshoot.

Finally, I think some consideration should be given to the amount of time passengers actually have in certain ports. When many of the major attractions are approximately three hours away from the port, that means passengers may spend close to six hours of their day simply traveling back and forth. Those might be better ports for an overnight stay or a longer port day rather than a quick one-day stop. By the time you travel to the destination, enjoy the attraction, and travel back, there is very little time left and the day feels extremely rushed.

Again, the staff was wonderful, and these comments are not meant as criticism of the crew. My concerns are mainly with the logistics, maintenance, technology, dining experience, and overall planning. Improving the tender system, dining reservation availability, food quality and service, allergy communication, hot tub maintenance, the app, Wi-Fi reliability, entertainment scheduling, and the amount of time allowed at certain ports would make the overall cruise experience considerably better.

Our family of 8 just finished a 12-day British Isles cruise on the Majestic Princess, and unfortunately we came away disappointed compared to the service we have received from other cruise lines.

The room set the tone early. Chairs scraping across the ceiling until midnight, creaking that sounded like woodpeckers all night, a shower head that needed replacing, and a tub that would not drain unless we removed the plunger ourselves. Not exactly the restful start to a vacation you are hoping for.

From the moment we boarded, we felt like we were living in an infomercial. We bought the premium package thinking it would cover us, but the upselling never stopped. Ice cream costs extra. Staff walk around pushing Sabatinis reservations and rolly polly glasses after dinner. Balcony dinners, menu surcharges, even upcharges inside the specialty restaurants. Room service claims to be included with the package, but half the items carry charges and service fees for the same food you can get for free in the buffet. It is exhausting.

Dining was mostly a letdown. Crown Grill had us getting our own water, served me a steak that was burnt all the way through, and charged me an extra $20 for lobster that was like rubber. They remade it, but by then everyone else at our table had finished eating. Salty Dog lost my order entirely. The creme brulee in the Concerto restaurant was more of a soup. The one shining light was Sabatinis, where the food was consistently great and the service was amazing every time we went, thanks to Neonell and both Antonios.

The excursion experience was where Princess really showed its true colors. We booked an excursion through the ship and then had to pay out of pocket to get from the pier to the meeting point. The tender ticket system was a mess. In Edinburgh, I was in line an hour before they started distributing tickets and we still lost three hours waiting. When I went to guest services, they had another guest yelling about a missed tee time and bumped her to an earlier tender. We were missing a private excursion we had booked and they would not do the same for us. The lines themselves were a safety hazard.

What frustrated us the most was how Princess pretends to listen. We raised concerns through guest services and were told someone would get back to us. They never did. The food and beverage team approached us at breakfast one morning, took notes, took our room number, and said they would follow up. Nothing. At a certain point you realize the feedback process exists to make you feel heard in the moment, not to actually fix anything. I am sure this review will not change that, but hopefully it helps future guests prepare properly, understand the challenges, and set their expectations accordingly.

It was not all bad. Frank at the pool bar on Deck 16 gave us consistently good service. Robin in the art gallery was fun to chat with. Hilton at Alfredos impressed us with how he handled a difficult group while keeping his composure and humor. And the Medallions and Princess App worked well for room access, check-in and out, and locating family members around the ship.

But for a family of 8 spending this kind of money on a 12-day trip, you expect the basics to work and you do not expect to feel like a walking revenue opportunity every time you turn a corner. We will not be booking with Princess again.