Royal Caribbean International is no longer be retiring it’s oldest ship, Majesty of the Seas. The ship will instead be moving to Port Canaveral to do short cruises to the Bahamas.
The Majesty of the Seas is Royal’s last Sovereign class ship. The Sovereign class ships were revolutionary when originally built between 1988 and 1992 and helped transform the cruise industry. This class of ship is lovingly referred to by many as the first modern mega-ships; they were the largest ever built at the time.
The Sovereign class ship has been on decline in the most recent decades. Ships are now roughly 3 times the size of the Majesty. The newest ship to join Royal’s fleet,Quantum of the Seas, is a new class of vessel that is also being described as groundbreaking. With 16 public decks and room for nearly 5,000 passengers, Quantum is the third largest cruise vessel ever built and boasts new features such as a deck-top ride into the sky and a bar with robot bartenders.
Short cruises have sky rocketed in popularity over the last decade. We can expect their popularity to grow with cruising to no where now illegal in the US.
Carnival Cruise lines made a similar move to increase it’s short cruise capacity by replacing the Carnival Sensation with the much larger Carnival Victory. The Victory will then dry dock for upgrades and be replaced with the Carnival Valor in 2016. Changing ships increases the number of passengers Carnival can have on board for 3 and 4 day cruises by 34%. Royal’s decision to keep the Majesty of the Seas confirms the expectation of even more popularity for short cruises.
Majesty of the Seas Upgrades
Before heading over to Port Canaveral, the Majesty of the Seas will be receiving a face lift. When Majesty embarks from Port Canaveral passengers will enjoy free unlimited, ship wide wifi, and new water slides and restaurants.
Sherry covers a detailed description of the upgrades in her latest blog post over at Cruise Maven.
Majesty of the Seas Itinerary
As previously mentioned, the Majesty will provide passengers with short cruises. The cruise will last 3-4 days and the destination will be the Bahamas and will include a night at Royal’s private island CocoCay.
With Majesty of the Seas’ move to Port Canaveral, the line will now send Rhapsody of the Seas to Tampa to sail 7-night Western Caribbean cruises in winter 2016. Reservations for Majesty of the Seas’ inaugural Port Canaveral season are now available for sailings beginning May 27, 2016. Rhapsody of the Seas’ Tampa sailings are also open for sale for sailings beginning December 3, 2016.
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