Early 2020 AD. Danny and I embark on a 21st century Odyssey. On the Majestic Princess from Sydney to New Caledonia, Vanuatu and Fiji. Back to Sydney, then to Melbourne and flying back home.

We did this cruise before the coronavirus epidemic became a pandemic. We are very aware the travel industry and in particular the cruising industry is hit hard by the consequences of the pandemic. Travelling and cruising may never be the same again. But this is how we experienced cruising on the Majestic Princess in January and February 2020.

There are many bars and restaurants on board Majestic Princess. Let’s discuss the bars.

• Piazza Bar;
• Vines Wine Bar;
• Bellini’s Bar;
• Crooners Bar;
• Crown Grill Bar;
• Gong Cha (tea bar);
• Seaview Bar;
• Fountain Pool Bar;
• Wake View Bar;
• Hollywood Bar;
• Ocean Terrace Juice Bar.

There’s plenty of choice here. You can distinct a few types.

The Wake View Bar, the Fountain Pool Bar, the Hollywood Bar and the Seaview Bar are the pool bars with softdrinks and summery cocktails. The Ocean Terrace Juice Bar offers fresh fruit juices.

Crooners Bar and Crown Grill Bar offer other, more sophisticated, more elaborate cocktails. These are places to chat or read.

Bellini’s Bar, Piazza Bar and Vines Wine Bar are all located on or around the Piazza. They share the same atmosphere.

Gong Cha (tea bar) has novelty ice teas with bubbles and so on and also barista coffee.

Drinks package

A drinks package is something (all) cruise companies have. You pay an amount per day and it allows you to consume alcoholic beverages, coffees and teas outside fixed meal times and soft drinks free of extra charge.

On Majestic Princess it was AU$ 50 per day. Quite a lot of money. But still, we were surprised how few people had such a package.

With the package you can buy drinks up to $16 per glass. Champagnes, wines, cocktails… but also nicer teas and coffees. You quickly reach 50 dollars per day.

We took advantage of our drinks package without getting drunk.