We were on the May 7 repositioning cruise on the Voyager of the Seas (Miami to New Jersey via Aruba & Labadee). Below are our thoughts on the cruise.Embarkation: Slight delay due to the ship not clearing US Customs in Miami. Not a big deal. We were able to check in, got our Seapass card. We were sent to a line to wait to embark and only waited about 40 minutes. We were on board slightly before 1PM, which worked out great, since the cabins aren’t available until then anyway. All in all, not a bad process.
Sail Away: This was fun. Due to a delay in loading some baggage, we left a bit late, which I think worked out great because we got to watch Navigator leave. It was great fun watching all of the passengers on her decks waving to us. The ships both blew their whistles to each other which added to the fun. As we sailed out of the channel in Miami, there were a lot of cars parked on the side of the road with people waving as we passed.
Cabin: We found out we had been upgraded to a Junior Suite – Cabin 9568 on Deck 9. This cabin was very large, with a large walk-in closet, big bathroom, with a tub, and tons of storage. It also had a very large balcony. The only down-side was a big stain on the carpet (looked like someone spilled a daiquiri there). Overall, the cabin appearance was quite good and it appeared clean (no – we didn’t take a black light to it – kind of afraid to go that far!!) Another nice touch was that there was a volume control so you could turn off the announcements. Our cabin attendant was Gerry.
Dining Room: We had Second Seating, a table for 6 (Table 416), in La Boheme, which was on Deck 4. Our table was tucked into a corner, by a floor to ceiling window. We shared our table with four other people, a couple from New Jersey (Hi Marty & Cathy) and a couple from Virginia (Hi Ron & Rachel). Wonderful group of people. We truly enjoyed our time together and hope to see them again in the future!! Our waiter was Nicki and assistant waiter was Michael. Wonderful service. Nicki had a smile that would light up the room. Also happy to see everyone. Between the two of them, our service was excellent. We thought the food in the main dining room was quite good, and plentiful. The room itself is just beautiful (we like it better than Britannia on QM2).
Portofinos: We had dinner in Portofinos one evening. Excellent. The room is beautiful, food and service both excellent. Highly recommend this restaurant.
Johnny Rockets: This was fun. The food was good but the service lacked a bit because the waiters are singing & dancing so the food sits around for awhile before it gets served. Cover charge wasn’t bad and did seem to keep the crowds down (except on the last sea day – we walked by and there was a long line).
Other Dining Venues: Other venues included the Windjammer Café and the Island Grill (Voyager doesn’t have Chops). These were nice, with the ambience edge going to the Island Grill, with very nice décor and windows overlooking the stern of the ship.
Public Rooms:
Schooner Bar: This was our favorite. We went there each night for pre-dinner cocktails. There were two servers there, Volkan, from Turkey, and Vinka, from Chile, who were an absolute treat. They knew both Jack and my names, as well as our drink preference (chocolate martinis!). The feel of this room is quite nice, with some seats by the windows to sit back and enjoy the view. A couple of nights, Janet from the cruise activity staff was there to do Team Trivia, which was a lot of fun.
Aquarium Bar: Only went here once. Nice space, with large aquariums. Service was good, but unfortunately, I don’t remember who helped us (as we only went there the one time). The space is nice, but we noticed that the room is a bit tattered around the edges (mostly some stains on the furniture). Nothing to diminish the enjoyment – just an observation.
Champagne Bar: Very nice space. Never had a drink there – but very attractive.
La Scala Theatre: Beautiful room spanning decks 3 and 4. We tended to sit on the Deck 4 seating area. We saw the two production shows – Dreamscape and Vibeology. Both were excellent, but I preferred Vibeology, but only because I really liked the songs that sang. A highlight was a back-stage tour conducted on the last sea day. The Sound Engineer and two of the dancers conducted the tour. We got to go on stage, and back-stage to see where all of the props are kept, the dressing areas, how the flying harnesses are rigged and just how much time the performers have (or don’t have) to do costume changes. Apparently one of the singers – E Jay, was on the first season of American Idol (don’t watch the show, so I wasn’t sure. Verified that on the website though).
Cleopatra’s Needle: Very attractive space done in an Egyptian motif. This is a smaller venue that held Bingo, dancing, and Karaoke. The Karaoke was a blast. We missed the first night but the semi-finals and finals were a lot of fun. In the finals, the singers actually sang with a live band – the Liza Hendrix Experience. Some of the performers were very good – hats off to anyone who has the guts to get up and sing in front of people though! The Liza Hendrix Experience was pretty good – really rocked out. We enjoyed them. Sight lines in the room are a bit compromised due to pillars, and they could use a slightly better ventilation system as the room tends to get warm and smoke isn’t vented too quickly.
Studio B: This is the ice rink. Very industrial feel to this space, which seems to work well. We saw the Ice Jammin’ show. Excellent. Highly recommended.
Royal Promenade: This is a very nice space with shops, cafés and bars, as well as the Guest Relations desk. They had 3 parades (we attended 2), which are very high energy and fun. I really enjoyed the New Orleans style parade. We liked the “look-outs” on decks 6, 7, and 8 in the elevator lobbies that overlook the promenade. We did drop some money at the Logo Shop. We purchased the “making of” DVD, a book of interior photos of RCI and Celebrity ships and some Christmas Ornaments. Voyager had a wonderful selection of ornaments! We steered away from the clothing as most of it had iron on decals, which I think is kind of cheap. They didn’t break out the embroidered items until later in the cruise when they were on sale for 50% off.
Fitness Center / Spa: The gym was OK – nothing too spectacular. It had a small pool/hot tub (couldn’t quite tell – was too warm for a pool but too cool for a hot tub). The spa didn’t do much for us. We both had a massage, but found them unremarkable. No upsell on products or services though, as I’ve heard happened to some other folks. Wouldn’t go back for a massage. We kept comparing it to the Canyon Ranch on QM2 and that was just superior.
Solarium: This was the adults only pool area, done in a Romanesque motif. It was usually pretty crowded, but it was really a nice area to just sit and read a book while working on your tan.
Main Pool: Very crowded, but fun. Live music much of the day, with bar service at your chair if you wish.
Chair Hogs: There was some evidence of this happening but it didn’t seem too pervasive.
Sports Deck: This area was a lot of fun, even though we didn’t rock climb or do the in-line skating. We did play a little basketball (badly) and did the miniature golf which was fun.
Ports:
We had two ports on this cruise as it was a repositioning cruise. We specifically booked it for the amount of sea days.
Aruba: We docked in Aruba and stayed until 1AM. We only booked on shore excursion – the Atlantis Submarine. What an experience. We dove down to 150 feet and got to see the coral reef and all of the sea life. The guide was quite informative, pointing out different types of sea life and coral types. After that, we just bummed around town all day. We went to Carlos & Charlie’s (but only for lunch!) and then to Iguana Joes for a Mohido later. We enjoyed the port but went back on board at around 4PM to enjoy the pool deck in relative quiet. We got back off at around sunset to try and get some pictures of Voyager all lit up. There was a deck party and buffet from 11:30 – 1 (ish). The buffet looked good, but we didn’t eat any of it (there’s only so much food we could eat).
Labadee: We were pleasantly surprised. We had low expectations for this port, but it was really a lot of fun. They had a lot of beaches to enjoy (the further from the main beach, the less crowded they were). We didn’t do any excursions here. We just enjoyed the beach and water. There was lunch served. Live music. Any number of things to do – wave runners, para-sailing, banana boat, water park, etc. This was a tendered port but it was really easy as they have at least 3 large capacity tenders stationed shore side to do this.
Various:
Cruise Director: Becky Thompson was the Cruise Director. What a hoot. She has more energy than I’ve seen in a long time! If anyone sees Becky on an upcoming cruise, be sure to say “Hello Luv!”.
Kids: We had a large number of children & teenagers on this cruise. RCI has a great kids program that kept the children occupied. As for the teenagers, we had no problems. Very well behaved and polite for the most part.
Announcements: Too many, too loud. If I never hear it’s Bingo time again, I will be happy. But at least we could turn the announcements off in the cabin.
Service in General: We found the service overall to be excellent; very attentive.
We did hear that Voyager will be deployed to Barcelona in May 2006 and that Explorer will take her place. We’re still hoping for a Voyager Class on the West Coast (the rumor is that Navigator is coming – we’d be very happy with that!!!)
Debarkation: The process of getting off of the ship seemed to go OK (but we’re easy going). The facilities in Bayonne definitely need to be updated. We did have one minor heart-attack – we couldn’t find one of our bags once we got to the terminal. We feared it may have been accidentally picked up by someone else. We had about 6 workers from the terminal help us and they were able to find it. I was impressed that so many people just jumped in and helped (and all with a smile – very nice). Getting transportation to the airport was a breeze though. No complaints.
Overall impression: We enjoyed this cruise very much and would do it again in a heartbeat. Was it perfect? No. Was it fun? Absolutely! The staff was wonderful and the people we met on board were a lot of fun too. Voyager could use a bit of sprucing up in some areas (some upholstery on chairs/sofas in public rooms, carpets in cabins) but nothing that would diminish from the experience. As a matter of fact, they were replacing carpets in the stairwells during the cruise so we had that “new ship” smell in a couple of areas!
We are impressed with the quality of the product Royal Caribbean has produced and will definitely sail this line again.
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