Our flight from Seattle didn’t depart for a few hours, so we sat outside security after checking our suitcases, and G finished a couple of sodas from our minibar. Going through security was a nightmare, even with our TSA pre-check. Rudest TSA agents ever, and passengers were responding in kind. Ugh. This was exactly what I had been fearing. When we finally arrived at our gate, a single Southwest agent had to take all the wheelchair passengers down to the aircraft and then come back to get us on board, and we were nearly an hour late taking off. Still, the real surprise was when we went to claim luggage at our home airport, and saw a line of people stretching clear around the main terminal. It was the backup for TSA security check. Yikes. Is everyone traveling right now?
Uber and Lyft, which we can usually get for around $50 to our home, was pricing at more than twice that. It was beginning to feel like Christmas week travel. I started rolling my suitcase toward the transit center, and we ended up taking mass transit most of the way, then supplemented with Lyft to the house for $30 total. We arrived home quite a bit later than we had anticipated (and too late for G to mow the front lawn as he’d wanted to do), but we were home. Somehow, despite the fact that we had felt stuck here for 18 months straight, it feels great.
We thoroughly enjoyed our three cruises to Alaska. In fact, G remarked on the way home that he had forgotten how much he likes the Majestic Princess. We are both surprised and happy that the Hollywood Conservatory was not turned into an extra charge Sanctuary. It’s a great place for so many activities on the ship (including the night club, which we never made it to but could occasionally hear in our cabin). I remain overwhelmed by the World Fresh Marketplace…and it wasn’t even fully open due to the lower passenger load. They need a map on the Medallion App for the buffet menu and food location.
The best part of the Majestic Princess (and the Nieuw Amsterdam too, for that matter) experience was the crew, collectively the best, most friendly crew we’ve encountered since the Pacific Princess. We felt they were truly as happy as we were to be back, and it made the atmosphere on the ship very special.
From a COVID perspective, we felt increasingly comfortable on the ships, more so each week as additional precautions were put into place. At first it was admittedly a little scary- I’m a person who stayed home for a year- but eventually I even got used to the Majestic Princess elevators and Princess Theater, the most tightly packed places we were in. And it felt wonderful to not have to discuss the politics of vaccinations and masks; everyone on board either felt the same or decided they could live with the health and safety requirements as they escalated.
The cruises, despite the masks, despite the extra cleaning and the elimination of some features and benefits, felt very normal. I think both Holland America and Princess did a great job retaining the essence of what makes their product special. It felt truly wonderful to feel so happy again, and it was obvious that many people felt the same way. The biggest adjustment on the Majestic Princess was that darn Medallion App. It has been tremendously oversold, and is incapable right now of delivering what’s been promised. Hopefully, that will improve, and quickly, in the future. As it is right now, it’s leaving both technically- and non-technically minded passengers frustrated and unsatisfied.
For me at least, three weeks was just the right length. There wasn’t enough variety in the entertainment (in fact, there was none) to stay on longer than that. The internet on the Majestic Princess is still not up to the speed and reliability we enjoyed on the Ruby Princess. Whether that might change as the ship sails further south, I’m not sure, and I’d want to get some confirmation from guests on those cruises before I paid for WiFi. The Premium Beverage Package was fantastic- for about four days. Any longer than that is wasted on me. I’m a water and decaf coffee drinker at home, and while it’s fun to venture out, I feel best sticking to that regimen.
I’m not sure there will be a Season 11 of extended cruising, but feel confident our cruising days are not altogether over. We have final payments for fall and winter cruises starting in just over a week, and we had hoped that cruising on the Majestic Princess would help us make up our minds about taking them. Unfortunately, it really hasn’t, but not because of the cruise experience we believe we’d enjoy. It’s more the uncertainty of what is happening in the state of Florida specifically, but everywhere with the Delta variant that is prompting us to take a more serious look at things over the next several days.
Somehow, being away from home for just three weeks has made me happy to be back. And that’s a very good thing.
