Nice cruise on Majestic Princess Sept 2025

We just completed the 10 night Quebec City to Boston cruise. We flew into Montreal and stayed 1 night, walking distance to the Old Town which is a very nice area with great restaurants. We took the 8:00 am Orleans Express Bus to Quebec City arriving on time at 11:15 am, walked 15 minutes to the cruise terminal, past a very long line of taxis waiting to enter the port. Embarkation was a breeze (green lane) we were onboard by noon. The cabins were available at 1 pm. We were in room and it was clean and the bed was comfortable. The cabin steward was very good. I was concerned about rocking and noise being that far forward but the seas were pretty calm, with one night of 6 foot waves and we felt nor heard anything. The breakfast and lunch in the buffet were very good with a large assortment of items to choose from, seating was not an issue. The main dining room dinners were good with a nice variety, the fish dishes were very good, however some of the beef dishes were just ok (pot roast cubed? and rib roast was very thin and disappointing). We relaxed in the Hollywood Conservatory several times and had no issues getting a lounge chair after a day walking around the port city. The ports of call were excellent and we especially enjoyed Quebec City, the hike/stroll in Saguenay National Park, as well as Charlottetown and Halifax. We saw some fall foliage colors but not as good as we hoped for. Portland also has a fantastic art museum, the PAM, and Victoria Mansion, is a restored house with many original pieces of furniture, which is about a 15-20 minute walk from the pier for both. The entertainment was very good if you like shows and comedians, very good musicians too, but nightlife after 10 pm is sparse. We did not do any games or quizzes but they looked like fun. We had the "old" Princess Plus package but the one time we got a premium sundae they charged us for it, so we went to customer service to have it removed. Tip-When arriving from Quebec City-Immigration in Portland is by when your number/group is called. You get a number by standing in line when they are given out, the previous evening I think. If you have a high number you may not get off until around 11 or 12. So we booked an official early walking tour "through Princess" starting before noon and skipped that process. Princess tours starting later than noon? still had to get a ticket and go through immigration on their own. We met onboard and we were escorted as a group to immigration at 8:45 am for the 9:30 walking tour. It was raining hard in Portland at the time of our walking tour and they gave us the option to get a refund or take the tour in the rain. We took the refund and it was adjusted promptly. Disembarkation was on schedule, we were later on the disembarkation schedule and got off at about 9:10 am and waited about 20 minutes in line for a cab. Overall the ship is very nice and well maintained. The crew and staff are excellent. We had a wonderful time.

Beautiful ship, great food, friendly crew

If you ever sail Princess be sure to try Alfredo’s Pizza. I’ve heard other reviews that it is the best pizza at sea. It’s at the top for any pizza I’ve ever had. I was a solo traveler and was able to order a small that was the right size for me. The crust is just right and the Veggie pizza I got was loaded with fresh vegetables. I had the Premier package and took full advantage eating at the specialty and casual restaurants every day. Don’t bother with the Guinness Cake from O’Malley’s unless you like eating a LOT of frosting. Way too much frosting and not enough cake. The frosting was supposed to be Guinness but I couldn’t taste it. The O’Malley’s burger was a very good burger. Sabatini’s Italian has great desserts but the meals were just that, Italian food. I honestly didn’t really find it to be anything special. The new Frescobaldi menu is a step up though. Crown Grill serves a great appetizer in the Colossal Lump Crab Cakes- lots of crab! Their seafood and steaks and chops are very good. The Catch by Rudi is still my favorite onboard restaurant. Except for the first night at Crown Grill, my service at all restaurants was very good and servers were attentive and made my meals very enjoyable. I enjoyed the shows that used an ensemble cast. Fiera sticks out as the best on this cruise. The costumes, props, singing and dancing were really great. The ports along the way were small and we were fortunate that at most, Majestic was the only ship in port. If you will be flying out of Quebec after, make a plan. The airport is not equipped to handle a cruise ship full of passengers. You cannot check in and go past security until 2 hours before your flight and there is only one small cafe and limited, rather uncomfortable, seats. I enjoyed the ship, food, and found that the crew is friendly and attentive. The beds are comfortable. Although the cruise was fully booked it never felt overly crowded. This particular cruise had fewer than 50 children so that may be one reason why.

First time Princess Cruisers-Majestic Princess

We are experienced cruisers, and often take cruises out of Boston, we only live a 45 minute drive from the port. We choose this cruise to Canada to get out of the heat here in Massachusetts and wanted to try Princess since it rarely embarks from Boston. We had heard great things about the Majestic Princess and took this cruise mainly for the ship. It did not disappoint the Majestic is beautiful, lots of great restaurants and music venue’s, a fabulous crew. We had a mini-suite, a spacious beautiful cabin, and we upgraded to the Reserve and Princess Plus packages. It could not have been better. Our cabin steward Cerry was very attentive, and cleaned our cabin each morning and night when we were out. We had a private restaurant for Reserve guests where there was no waiting, we were greeted by Sayli and our servers Alvin, Randy they were gracious and helpful. I spied a plastic duck in a hard to reach spot, Randy came to the rescue and I brought it home to my little niece who enjoyed collecting them on a family cruise we took a few years back. The food in the Concerto dining room was excellent, and being able to show up when we wanted to with no waiting was a real plus. We tried one special restaurant Sabatini’s the food was excellent all around, and the service top notch, we enjoyed our meal throughly. We also tried Alfredo’s pizza twice, we received two casual restaurant meals with our package and found the pizza so good we went back. The soups and salads here were also outstanding. We had to wait in line a bit to get in the second time, I think the word was out how good it was. We enjoyed the food in the International Cafe, but the food layout was a bit confusing. It was broken up into rooms, the bakery only had deserts even though there was a display of breads on the outside. The soups were in several locations, sliced bread was far from the sandwich spreads and meats. You really had to wander around and look. We were disappointed with the drinks, ice tea, lemonade and water. There was only one machine with one spout that I could find for everyone, The machine produced different drinks somehow but they just were not mixed right. It was a bit too high-tech for something so simple, which was often the case for this cruise but more about that later. Overall the food was excellent, especially the ramen soups made to order, the sandwich spreads, large variety of salads and incredible pastries and oatmeal in the morning. There were many types of hot food from all around the world each day, carving station etc. We were always able to find a seat, and often sat outside on the back of the ship the weather was perfect this trip to eat outside. We went to all the production shows, we enjoyed each one especially Fiera, the first one. What a great cast of singers and dancers, much larger than other ships we have been on. The very high tech Fantastic Journey Show with choreographed drones was different but to me not as interesting as the old time production shows. More flashing lights than anything. O’Malleys Irish Pub was always full, we never got inside but it is right off the Piazza area so you can hear the Irish singers from most anywhere in the Piazza along with the band and singers they had there each day. They took turns. We enjoyed all of the music, around the ship, always something from late afternoon on. The activities staff did a great job with a variety of activities for all ages. We enjoyed some of the trivia and games in the Princess Live venue. We are not pool people, but there were two one inside one out. People seemed to be enjoying themselves in both areas. The Hollywood Conservatory just beyond the indoor pool, was really something to see. There is a bar back there, but it is a bit of a walk from the buffet to bring food. There were cabana’s that could hold a family, with floor to ceiling windows and even a TV. There were lots of tables where people played cards and games, and a giant chess set, and plenty of places to sit. The view is the entire front of the ship. The only reason we would not try the Majestic Princess again was the size, it was just too big for us with too many people. Embarkation took hours. We arrived in what we thought would be after the crowd died down around 1pm, we were wrong. We found ourselves in a very long line, so we took ourselves out and sat down, we were not alone. It took 2 hours for the crowd to thin, we moved through security and checked in quickly but did not get on board until around 3:15pm. The one good thing our cabin was ready and we could drop off our things and head to the buffet for a very late lunch. We were exhausted by then. Getting off the ship was just the same, but we waited with some coffee and pastry in Concerto restaurant before getting into a fast moving line the entire length of the ship to go through immigration. We got off more than an hour later than our 9:30 scheduled time. We had to be out of our cabins by 8am, so it made for a long morning. In addition the ship is so large using the stairs is difficult, we often found ourselves 6 or more decks from where we wanted to be. Taking the elevators was often an ordeal. When they stopped they were often full, so there was a wait. With people pressing the buttons to ride, the elevator would stop many times when full so there were lots of disappointed people to face during each ride. Not to mention the constant starting and stopping as you were packed in with so many others. We waited in so many lines all week, none of it could be helped with so many people on board. We had reserved seats for the show, but still had to show up early to get a good one. The ship was never really quiet in the public areas, there was always lots of people. Our cabin was a quiet oasis, and we appreciated all the great on-demand movies on the TV. We enjoyed the TV shows also, including some of the old Love Boat episodes. In case you don’t know they have every episode on demand. The ship is very high-tech, and for the most part it is great. We don’t own a smart phone by choice, but we were constantly reminded that we should use our Princess app on a smart phones for all types of things on board. It was frustrating at times, and we felt out of the loop and often had to go to guest relations stand in line to check our bill, or ask a question or another line to buy a photo. I am sure there were things we missed completely. As we were told it is on the app. The Medallions that give instead of key cards were not our favorite. We did not purchase any of the watch bands or clips to put it in, we had ours on the given lanyard or in our pockets. They do open your door before you reach it, which is handy but they also show where you are on the ship at all times, which is a bit creepy. A crew member with a pocket device can see you coming and call you by name, which they did. As it is with a key card they check you in getting on and off the ship and at the restaurants, but with the Medallions they can check at all times where you are. I also like the key cards as a souvenir or each trip. Even with all of this we booked another cruise next year on the Sapphire Princess, it is half the size of the Majestic. It will be a transatlantic starting in Copenhagen and ending in Boston. We figure we will get all of the goodness with none of the crowds, and we are looking forward to it.