This article looks at the Thomson Majesty cruise ship with photographs taken of the ship from dry land. Another article will look onboard and inside the ship.
We took two cruises on the Majesty. The first, in 2014, was called Italian Flavours. Our embarkation point was Corfu in Greece, where she is seen here and then concentrated on the west coast of Italy after calling in at Valetta in Malta. The second cruise was the following year with our good friends David and Jeannie and also embarked in Corfu. This one was called Hellenic Classics and concentrated on visiting various ports around Greece and its islands.
She dates from 1992, when she was built for the Birka Line, but due to rising costs they refused delivery and she entered service as Royal Majesty with Majesty Cruise Lines. At the time she was 32,396 tonnes. She was built with the highest grade of ice-breaking capabilities. Her official naming ceremony was carried out in New York in July 1992 with Lisa Minnelli doing the honours.
In 1997 she was sold to Norwegian Cruise Line and renamed Norwegian Majesty. She underwent a refit in 1999 resulting in an increase of weight to 40,876 tonnes. She was sold upwards to NCL's parent company, Star Cruises, in 2004 but remained in NCL service until 2009 when it was sold to Louis Cruise Lines being renamed Louis Majesty. Not long afterwards in March 2010 she was hit broadside on by three successive rogue waves, 8 metres (26ft) or higher which smashed the main saloon windows, killing two passengers and injuring more. The vast amount of water that swamped into the saloon area drained to lower deck and caused much damage.
In 2012 she was chartered to Louis Cruises subordinate company, Thomson, becoming Thomson Majesty. The following year some members of the crew were killed and others injured during a routine safety exercise to launch and recover a lifeboat when one of the cables parted, leaving the lifeboat to fall bow first. An inquiry found that the inner strands of the cable which were not due to be replaced for another 17 months had corroded, whilst the visible outer strands had hidden this from inspections.
After our time on her, she was sold to Celestyal Cruises in 2017, being named simply Majesty, quite a rare achievement to keep the significantly relevant part of her name throughout all this time.
Thomson Majesty in the Bay of Naples off Sorrento. Here occurred one of my favourite and oft-remembered incidents from our cruising days when, standing at the ship's rail before breakfast, the chap next to me at last turned a penetrating gaze away from Mount Vesuvius and said to me, "You know... that looks a bit like a volcano doesn't it?" Nine years after this happened if Miss Franny and I see a photo of Vesuvius we immediately turn to each other and repeat that immortal line...
Towards the end of 2018 she was sold to the Isreali firm Mano Maritime and for the first time lost her Majesty name as she was renamed Crown Iris. She had a total refit in 2019 and rebuild, emerging with a new total length of 216 metres. She remains in service and as I write today in November 2023 she is currently moored in Chalcis, Greece.
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