It didn’t help that the Majestic Princess was at Princes Wharf on one side of the Auckland Ferry Terminal, and the Ruby Princess was at Queens Wharf on the other side, and the construction of the new light rail system had the sidewalk in between the two closed off. We had to cross Quay Street and then cross back to go around the construction, a real joy with four large suitcases, two small suitcases, a backpack and our four Most Traveled Guest tote bags chock-full of everything from our nightstand drawers and bathroom. But we, as well as the parade of other Ruby Princess passengers moving to the Majestic Princess today, survived.
We were being seated in the Concerto Dining Room (excuse me a minute while I set up a shortcut for that) by 12:30pm by none other than headwaiter Francesco who we knew from years on the Emerald Princess. It was much fun to see a familiar face, especially since not much else today felt familiar.
I will refrain from making public judgements about the Majestic Princess until we’ve spent more than 10 hours in the ship, but first impressions are that it’s big. Really big. And crowded. Extremely crowded, at least on Decks 5 to 7. On the other hand, there are so many places to be on the upper decks, so many seats and sofas and loungers, especially in the covered Hollywood Conservatory right above our cabin, that we really can avoid Deck 7 and the Piazza area most of the time. That’s going to save us.
Our suitcases were waiting for us in our cabin when we finished lunch, and we spent the next couple of hours unpacking and settling in. Then it was time for muster drill and dinner in the Concerto Dining Room, followed by the Princess Theater show, with aerialists Toby J and Susie Q (wow) and comedian Jim Short. His best joke: he’s at the age where his main job in life is providing technical support to his parents. They do well on laptops and iPads until something goes wrong. Their answer to that is to shut down the device, lock it in a spare room, pile furniture up against the door and hope it resolves itself. Ummmm...who does that sound like, Mom? ;-)
We spent some time after the show watching from the Hollywood Conservatory as the Majestic Princess wound its way through Auckland Harbour (sail away wasn’t until nearly 8pm), and watching a dancing fountain show set to Big Band music on the Lido Deck. Yes, I predict we’ll spend a lot of time on the ship’s upper decks.
The most glaring drawback we’ve encountered so far? OMG this WiFi is pathetic. 250 minutes have to last us 12 days with a download speed of 1.6Mbps and a negligible upload speed. This is connectivity culture shock after what we enjoyed on the Ruby Princess. I can already predict we’ll be spending time in ports searching out free WiFi.
Darn.