The Majestic Princess, the “Chinese ship”
So, I’m blogging with a flurry to keep the momentum going, strike while the iron is hot, etc. We came back on Saturday from an eight-day cruise to Alaska and back to Vancouver. My experienced with cruising in-laws hadn’t been on the Majestic Princess yet and they were excited and my aunt-in-law (AIL) was on it recently and was very happy about it.
Not paying a huge amount of attention, I thought it was a “Chinese ship” in that it had the bilingual signs to cater to a largely Chinese clientele embarking from Vancouver. For my part, I was happy to see the bilingual signage and Kiddo who was learning to navigate himself was attuned to those words he did understand (e.g., 出口 along with “Exit”).
I had interpreted wrong and what it means is that for the first several years of it being in service, it was sailing in Asia like Chinese home port. Well, that clearly explains it.
For Vancouver folks or others who are used to Chinese amenities, I checked out a few that helps people steeped in traditional ways find something from home.
Like nearly daily “Tai Chi at Sea” sessions in Vista Lounge. I hadn’t done it before and saw it was video lead, some five lessons delivered in the 45 minutes allocated. I’m guessing it was a series made for Princess and I wasn’t able to locate it in a quick YouTube search.
Like Chopsticks Noodle Bar with regular offerings of won ton mein soup and vegetable miso udon and one special. The noodles were the same across the offerings (some thin egg noodle) and the broths varied just slightly. While it seemed like the queue was annoyingly long (about 10 deep and only 1 server ever), it was necessary sustenance when the kids started feeling poorly on At Sea days.
On the last full day, lunch time at the Fresh Markplace (buffet) was a bonanza with Fisherman Corner offering seafood cioppino, crab cakes, clam chowder, grilled calamari, butter grilled shrimp and more. The queue for cioppino was something terrible and a server was ladling that one out so everyone could have a chance.
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